|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 31 August2003 |
 |
|
 |
Magazine |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Together we shall succeed Playing House, Guy Style. It is a bright sunny Thursday morning. August 21st 2003. The Vihara Maha Devi Park has been transformed into a citadel of its own. Plastic canvassed tents, ropy fences, bamboo watch towers, sheds and huts. At the entrance of the Elephant Side of the Park, are two Boy Security Guards, selling entrance passes, ever alertly inspecting those coming in. Once I step inside it's like entering a Boy's World. Boys, boys, boys, everywhere. Scrawny, beefy, short, tall, medium. Boys in their pre teens, teens and tweens. Boys in longs, shorts, t-shirt, shirt, all however rounded or shall I say wounded up with scarves of a combination of colours around their necks. Plus badges pinned all about. It is the 40th Colombo Camporee, organised by the Sri Lanka Scout Association Colombo Branch, from the 19th to the 23rd August 2003, at the VMDP. With 3000-4000 Scouts united under the theme "Together We Shall Succeed" this is the second time the Senior Scouts of Colombo District, are organizing the big event, the norm of adults doing the job being broken in 2001. Everything being done by the boys themselves, with just the help of a few Advisors, the two Security Guards call a third boy, who ushers us (the Lens Clicker and myself) to the Headquarters. A "yakada" tent fixed in the middle of the Campsite, equipped with plastic chairs, wooden rickety tables piled up with books (the souvenirs), a computer, and stereo blasting away with song, interrupted now and then with announcements, announced over mikes by a group of the older male species. The Usherer introduces me to a guy whom I presumed to be the Chief of the Tribe, who in turn walkie talkies another (talk about modern tele-communication). Two chairs and two drinks of Ole ice-cream soda, whisked out within seconds, the Walkie Talkied Guy turns up. His name is Sujiv Fonseka and he is the G.S. (General Secretary) of the place. Says Sujiv "The Camporee is about giving Scouts a taste of what a Jamboree could be. It also gives Scouts of various Troops to interact with one another. Us seventeen year olds organizing this event was not an easy task. We had to start planning and working things out four months before. Getting the essential services such as water and electricity was difficult, as is now maintaining the toilets, but we are doing it...". Sujiv having filled with the details as to what the Camporee was about, the guy who walkie talkied him, Yohan Kodikara, who is the A.S and C.E (Assistant Secretary and Chief Editor), takes the role of Travel Guide and shows me around the town, which is divided into four sites. The Wing Camp of the North, East, South and West. "Camporee Camporee It's Scouting's mighty fun..." Screams the Colombo Camporee Song. What I see before me, certainly seems to ring true to it. Boys in groups of two's, three's, four's, six's and more huddled together in a mat playing board games, strolling about, running along, climbing and slithering down ropes, even cooking food and cleaning up corners. The colours of the scarves around their necks, it turns out, symbolises the colours of their schools. "The Camporee" says Yohan "is all about Scouts getting together, having fun, working as a team, developing qualities such as leadership, responsibility and team spirit". Each Troop, having rug up its own camp, the team spirit seems to be soaring. The demarcation of their Troop being stamped onto their entrances, while some were plain, in others, young architects had come up with outstanding creations, such as a "Ropy Spider's Web, with a hole to enter through at its middle", a "Wooden planky Bridge" and "Arches". There was even one whose entrance was like a Gateway of a Palace, the drawbridge being opened for me to step, on a wooden platform with wheels, which is pulled forward with a rope hauled by the boys from the inside. The outer door closing once I stepped in, the inner door opens as the platform/ carriage rolls nearer (the Princess stepping out of her Barge). Inside the palace a guitar is twanging, the Palace Guards are stretched out in the sun and a group of Little Gentlemen are circled up in a game of cards. The Guide (Yohan) having shown me in, introduces me to the Court Master, Indika, Troop Leader of the camp, St. Thomas College Mount. Two cups of cordial served by the Butler, Indika points out the four poster tent rooms, toothbrush toothpaste rack, shoe shelf, clothes wardrobe, and the pride of the place, the palace kitchen. A bamboo structured hut with tables, shelves and hangings for kitchen equipment, a "gas lipa", bamboo'd dustbin, bamboo-sirisiri bagged sink with a bucket at its bottom. There's a PIC (Person In Charge) who supervises the other boys who come in shifts to work in it. Of the STC sixty boy Troop, who range from 11 year olds to 25 year olds, the nineteen year old Troop Leader says "This whole experience has been a lot of hard work and enjoyment. Working as a team, doing the basics like cooking and cleaning up, maintaining cleanliness and discipline, having fun at the same time, just goes to show how Scouting makes you a better person as a whole. I believe that what I've learnt here will help me when leaving school and stepping into the world". My tour de STC completed, I speak to some younger boys to see what they have to say about the matter. Eleven year old Angelo together with two of his eleven year old mates from St. Benedict's say "What we learnt? We learnt to do knots and lashes. Helped make the kitchen and shoe rack, and did rope climbing, darts and first aid". In the other end of the Park (towards the open aired theatre) a Mini Commando Training Camp is being conducted, with Commando Bridge, Commando Walk and Commando Crawling, supervised by Sri Lanka Navy Personal. Says Yohan "All this is apart of the Skill-O-Rama, which has a number of activities each troop has to participate in. From these sought of physical exercises to mental stuff like the General Knowledge Quiz, the boys develop their various skills and talents, learning about coordination and cooperation". In the middle of the Park (where those long rectangular ponds are), continuing with the Skill-O-Rama a Mini Olympic is being held, with a "Polkatu" Olympic Torch blazing away, followed by a Fireman's Tower (F.T) set by R.C (Royal College), which boys from all Troops are queuing up. Says Rizar Azoor, Advisor of the Organizing Committee, overlooking the F.T "Through this Tower boys' get to see and feel how a real life fireman's rescue is done, through the Fireman's Chair, which is a special kind of knot made in a rope. The participant gets into the knot, which once pulled wraps iself around his thighs. He is hauled up by a group of boys pulling the rope, and once landed at the top, gets off from the other side, in the same manner, this time the rope being gently released". Having seen around the other camps and Skill-O-Rama activities the Tour Guide finally takes me to the R.C. Camp, which is the biggest camp (584 participants), with three groups (Green, Gold and Diamond) and has a site all to themselves. On entering the Green Camp Site which is the biggest of the three, with ten Troops of thirty boys each, everything is in mini and numbers. Little kitchens, little clothes racks, little shoe racks and such, lined one after the other. Ashwini, Senior Troop Leader says "This is the Patrol System, which makes us different from the other groups, for we are the only ones doing it. In it for example, instead of having one big kitchen, we have forty little kitchens and such. The system is based on individual patrol sites within the camp". The Green's also have an Aerial Runway supplied by the Sri Lanka Army, for which a throng of boys, from all camps are lining up. From a rope ladder, to the top of a tree, and into the seat (two pieces of bamboo, one to put your feet over and one to cling on with your hands), once released, your whizzed down (Like Macualay Culkin in Home Alone One, though he goes from the window of his house to the tree house). Being asked to have a go at this , well, how could I chicken out. Besides being one of the few representatives from Venus, I had to stand up for my species and show em boys some Girl Power. So it's up the ladder I go... PS - The Camporee was a day in which boys of all ages, religions and cultures got together, worked hard, having fun. PPS - Prasanna Goonawardena, Mayor of Colombo together with the Sri Lanka Army Orient Group attended the inaugural ceremony held on the 20th August 2003. PPPS - The Girl Guide and Cub Day was held on the 22nd August 2003. Scriber - Farah Macan Markar |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
