Jamboree 1995

Hearing on the news about Scouting and the Jamboree takes me back to this time 1995, when I was taking part in the Dutch World Jamboree. I had ended up there almost by accident because I had left Scouting several years before. I'd been asked to work at the site as one of a team of translators and interpreters. In the end it was quite a big team, and there wasn't always enough work to keep everyone occupied, so there was plenty of time to look round the site and take part in the event. This was lucky, in another way, because our team leader got ill during the event, and his replacement was a little busy elsewhere, but we were able to organise ourselves.

I remember it was a hot summer, and we had a sunny fortnight. As far as I can remember we had no rain at all, it was just very warm every day. Quite good, really, when you have 30,000 people camping together in a polder. The atmosphere was very good, and I remember leaving all my stuff in my tent every day and feeling quite safe. People seemed pretty happy, and I think a lot of young people made friends with people from all over the place. I remember talking to Scouts from Pakistan, a place that fascinated and still fascinates me.



The site was huge, a small city, and getting from one place to another could take quite a while. I hadn't been able to bring my bike, so I did a lot of walking, from our sub-camp to the office, to the press centre and to the various other sub-camps. There was a big restaurant for all the volunteers working on the site, and the food was generally good, though I didn't have much of an appetite for much of the Jamboree. That might have been the temperature.

Working, or being available for work, meant that you couldn't take part in all the events, but I did attend both the opening and the closing ceremonies. They had a slight Olympic feel to them, though they were a bit smaller. Well-organised and directed, lots of colour and a great sense of joy. Arriving a little late for the opening ceremony, we ended up just outside the arena waiting for the Queen and her husband to pass, and we got to see the Swedish king. It was all very colourful. I also attended a sailing parade, but for some reason I seem to remember little about it, except that a lot of things seemed to go wrong there. That can be reassuring sometimes.



For me it was fun being a translator and interpreter. We worked in a team, and translated the newsletter for staff working on site, instructions for various activities, and anything else we could get our hands on. This was the only time I ever worked as a proper interpreter, sitting in a little cubicle, wearing headphones, translating what was being said at the daily press conference. It was hard work, and took a lot of concentration, but I did enjoy it. I also enjoyed recording the message for visitors most days for the information number. I would sit in a little office, a little peace and quiet among the mayhem outside. For some reason I remember there being socks on the desk there, one of those ridiculous details.

In some ways it all seems very long ago, because, for example, I remember there hardly being any mobile phones. Some of the staff members carried their phones around, and I was surprised at finding myself in a toilet cubicle and hearing someone talking on the phone in the next cubicle. Nowadays that seems to be quite normal. And I saw on some of the pictures of the internet tent at this year's Jamboree, and that was a little less normal twelve years ago too. Apparently they had an internet tent then as well, but that I cannot remember. I remember queues at the pay phones that were there.