1st Training Camp

25th – 27th September 2009 @ The Cabin

Friday night saw the first proper gathering of the Japan 2010 Contingent. We met at “The Cabin”, kindly donated by 1st Cheadle Hulme Scout Group, and pitched our tents in the ever encroaching darkness. 150 people means an awful lot of tents to cram into the small field behind the cabin, but we managed it, with room to spare for a football-cum-rugby-prisoner pitch in the middle.

Friday night was spent getting to know the other participants. There were games of Table Football (can anyone beat “Pirate Pete”), Table Tennis, Cheat, and many more, plus the opportunity to watch one of the Ice Age films.

Saturday morning started off with a couple of “looseners”. Paul (Troop Leader) opened proceedings with a Cheadle Hulme favourite, 60 a side Prisoner! Closely followed by the old faithful, Head It, Catch It. After a brief rendition of the Hokey Cokey, bravely led by Chloe from the middle of the circle, The leaders present introduced themselves, and the jobs they’ll be doing in Japan.

The Media Team (Al and Clair) then started their task of documenting the proceedings. First job, take a head shot of each Scout. Second job, match each Scout to a name. Third job, track down and identify all the Scouts who failed to stand in alphabetical order, thus rendering a cunning plan slightly less cunning.

We then split the contingent into 8 groups, and dispatched to complete tasks on 4 of the 8 bases that were being run. Part of the training we are doing with the Contingent is to prepare them for any eventuality once we reach Japan. So not only are we giving them ongoing 1st Aid Training, so that they can look after themselves and their fellow participants, but we are also teaching them about Japanese life, starting with general Japanese Culture, and how to make Sushi.

The was also Under the Rope, a String Trail, the Chopsticks Challenge, Basketball and a chance to enter the competition to design our Contingent Badge (for sale by all good Contingent members in due course).

The afternoon was spent participating in the Leaders Fair. Each leader ran a mini base, including the Big Buddha Diary Room, The Paul Shardlow Balance Rope, Human Pyramid building, Card Houses, Ant’s magical Didgeridoos, Japanese penmanship, and many many more.

After some Free Time, and a lovely Beef Curry, everyone crammed into the Hut for the Liz Slater Karaoke Spectacular. There were plenty of pretty shocking voices on display, but no one seemed to mind, except perhaps the neighbours (our thanks go out to the residents of Cheadle Hulme for their understanding). Amongst the songs sung were Angels, Dancing Queen, Take Me Out and Angels. Yes, that’s right, we got Angels twice with it being chosen for the encore. If only I was a Robbie fan…

The night wound down with a similar offering to the previous night. Night at the Museum was the movie choice.

Sunday morning started with the traditional Scouts Own, led by the Troop Leaders – Paul, Chris, Liz and Helen.

We then split back into the 8 groups from Saturday, and returned to complete the remaining 4 bases that were being run. Part of the training we are doing with the Contingent is to prepare them for any eventuality once we reach Japan. So not only are we giving them ongoing 1st Aid Training, so that they can look after themselves and their fellow participants, but we are also teaching them about Japanese life, starting with general Japanese Culture, and how to make Sushi.

For Lunch we sampled a traditional Japanese dish, Miso Soup, and then the afternoon was spent striking camp, cleaning the hut, and saying our goodbyes. We left with John’s words ringing in our ears, looking forward to the next meet up at a Fund Raising event, looking for to the next training weekend in January, and most of all, looking forward to the 15th Nippon Jamboree!