This Scout Jamboree in South Korea

[Rainallnight]

Have only just read this and it a struck me I’ve not seen any threads about it. Does anyone have any DC there? Is it as bad as all that?

(Promise not a journo or anything - just can’t sleep and curious!)

My only experience is that a school friend’s child is on it. The friend does not work, claims benefits “bad back” and on returning from a 3 week very expensive holiday abroad messaged asking me to donate money to child’s trip. I had not one holiday last year and work full time. The audacity.

I have a friend who went on one a few years ago - somewhere in South America I think. They are amazing events. Must be pretty grim with lots of the young people being unwell. There will be a field hospital there as part of the site but they will be set up to deal with penknife cuts, bites stings and allergic reactions, not mass illnesses.

Each country only gets to send about 200 delegates so it's a pretty rare privilege to be selected when you consider there are over 800,000 scouts and guides in the uk so that's 0.025%

Just read about it - apparently 4,500 British scouts are there. I hope they're being looked after, it sounds horrendous.

@Rainallnight There is an active thread in chat, sorry I can't copy it but search on 'anyone got a scout or explorer going to WSJ in South Korea? '
I've got a friend there who is a leader and am enjoying following the thread.

My son is there. He's in good spirits and whilst things are not ideal he is in good spirits for now.
@spilltheteapot you will be pleased to know I work full time and paid a significant amount of money towards it. My son funded the rest with a Saturday job and a small amount of fundraising.
It is frustrating for me that certain people could apply to the 'dream fund' and get a lot of it paid for (in receipt of benefits basically) while the rest of them had to find the full 4K to go.

I went to the WSJ in 2011 and it was one of my best life experiences. My parents paid a fair chunk of the money but we did fundraise a lot. However, that fundraising wasn’t just me begging for money but running events - car washes, tea rooms, etc.

It’s awful that so many are unwell. Hopefully, they are being well looked after.

Does anyone have a link to the other thread / info about it? I’ve done a search but there isn’t much coming up. I’ve got a friend out there who is a leader and is really struggling with illness etc.

Ignore me, I’ve found it!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4850577-anyone-got-a-scout-or-explorer-going-to-wsj-in-south-korea?msgid=-4850577#-4850577

What’s happening there?

My friend has a teenager there and apparently no real issues. Seems UK and US have pulled out of the Jamboree site but we have stayed as our kids would not consider that to be hot as such and don’t have the same food issues (for some reason our kids tend to eat a lot less, and honestly when Mumsnetters describe school lunchboxes ours would be lucky to have that volume for all school lunches combined in a week). Apparently our organisers did talk to the South Korean organisers about sanitation needing to be improved and that did occur, so they are all happy and having fun. Must say horrific toilets probably don’t faze many either as most will likely have been dragged on road trips with family and I can’t even begin to describe the horrors of the blowfly ridden drop toilets that are the only option along many routes, but if there’s no snake or other nasty in them you are winning. The supposedly poor South Korean ones are probably a dream in comparison🤣.

Apparently those countries who have not pulled out have now been emergency evacuated due to an incoming typhoon. Our lot were pulled out at 4am, now in lovely hotels in Seoul.