Welcome to the 24th World Scout Jamboree!

It’s been a whirlwind couple of days: 36 hours of travelling, a massive thunderstorm, 50,000 people in a stadium, and Bear Grylls falling onto the stage (say whaaaat?)

Last night’s opening ceremony was insane! As global ambassador, I had the honor of carrying the cypriot flag in front of fifty thousand people (no biggie) and I definitely won’t be forgetting that indescribable feeling anytime soon (i had goosebumps). It was amazing to see all the global ambassadors congregate together – I never realised just how many of us there were (about 140, for your information). The ceremony itself was fabulous and ran seamlessly, and as a theatre enthusiast I can only imagine all the rehearsals and planning that must have gone into it. It began with South African scouts and Lebo M singing the Circle of Life from the Lion King as we paraded the flags down the stadiums aisles, then the official flag parade began. I was placed after one of the German Global Ambassadors, and we kept looking at each other with ear wide grins, asking each other “is this real?!” for most of the ceremony. The buzz from all 50,000 of us was out of this world! All the cheering, the screaming, the neckers being thrown on stage to Bear Grylls …Crazy!

One highlight was the end of the ceremony: instead of a typical firework show, we had a drone show! The drones made patterns such as the jamboree logo, the World Organisation of the Scouting Movement logo, among many others! We all loved it, cheering and singing along as our jamboree song was being played while the colourful drone lights lit up the night sky. It was a perfect way to begin the 24th World Scout Jamboree – I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Jamboree has in store!