25th Australian Scout Jamboree 2019

Aayan Ahmed
The long expected January 1, 2019 finally arrived. It was the day when all of the Bangladesh contingent would fly to Australia towards an amazing adventure in the 25th Australian scout jamboree. We, the 16 young scouts from Sunnydale School were as excited as anything to join in that luxurious event. We were about to witness one of the best events in the world of scouting.
Landing after a freezing transit of sixteen hours in china, we were greeted with a very hot weather of 32 degrees in Adelaide. I was quite both sad and shocked that we had to stay in such scorching weather for the next 12 days. Though leaving the fear of getting sunburnt to my 100 power sunscreen (still the chance was there!), I engaged with the others. Arriving at our jamboree site, we noticed that already there were many tents such as international hub, the pitch, etc. All these tents were accumulated in the shape of a mall, known as Alawa mall. After a daylong adventure, every night we were allowed to talk with our parents (using free Wi-Fi), chill out, and roam around. Our sub camp site was quite good. Our troop was C324 and our troop leader was Bill William Pettit. On our arrival we each received a buddy day pack which included hat, handbook, and lunchbox for overnight/daylong activities. Next day, during the opening ceremony proudly we saw our national flag being hoisted. We all had fun at the concert and enjoyed colourful fireworks. Towards all the participants, the jamboree chief gave an inspiring speech.
Our activities began on the next day. The first activity was the ‘Cube’, which included mud zone, obstacle zone and vertical zone. It was a 3 hour activity but we did all 3 zones in 1 hour. We earned wristbands and badges after the activity. There were many activities everyday such as BANG, SPLAT, WHIZZ, HI TECH, and many more. There were 2 daylong activities, METRO MANIA & WET n WINDY. In metro mania, we roamed around Adelaide city, and played goose chase. Wet n windy was once in a lifetime experience. We were taken to the Murray River, where we controlled our own boat. It was a super duper activity. We also had an international night when the Bangladesh contingent performed some dances with some popular songs like Tugdoom-Tugdoom Bajai Bangladesher Dhol, Joy Bangla etc.
At the closing ceremony, we were congratulated for completing the jamboree and given badges. We saw slideshow of the pictures in the jamboree. Here we made many friends living in different countries. After all, we were quite happy to join this once in a lifetime jamboree experience. This may have been the 2nd jamboree for the rover scouts. However, I would like to encourage those who are interested in scouts to apply for such jamborees and to have such challenging experiences with people from around the world. It is surely an exciting, important and memorable event of my life.
The writer isa student of Class # VI, Sunnydale School. Also a
member of Bangladesh contingent an in the 25th Australian Scout Jamboree