I was very fortunate to be able to participate in the Boy Scout National Jamboree in Sri Lanka held from 20 to 26 February 2024 in Trincomalee. There were several thousand Sri Lankan boy scouts participating in the Jamboree. There was also more than two hundred international boy scouts and girl scouts from the neighboring countries of South and Southeast Asia taking part in the Jamboree. I was the only boy scout from the US. Since it was only me, the organizers introduced me to a troop comprising of 9 Singaporean, 3 Malaysian and one scout from Pakistan. We formed one troop together because our tents were right next to each other on the campground. While our combined troop had 14 scouts, there were larger troops from India, Nepal and the Maldives that had more than 50 scouts in each troop.
In our group, we would rotate leadership position every day. The Singaporeans called these leadership positions APL (Assistant Patrol Leader) and PL (Patrol Leader). Everyday a new set of leaders were chosen. Although I was the youngest, I was lucky enough to be chosen as the PL on the 3rd day of the Jamboree. As the PL, my main responsibilities were to plan our daily activities, assign tasks to the troop members to carry out the activities planned for the day and to organize breakfast, lunch and dinner. Along with APL I had to visit food trucks early in the morning to get breakfast, sign meal tickets and obtain food for lunch. I assigned cooking jobs for dinner, and also sent people to purchase groceries from the food trucks for dinner. I participated in Jamboree activities on behalf of the troop, helped others when everyone went to do activities. I got the activity books stamped for members of the troops who were sent to other chores. It was a great experience to be leading a small troop comprising of international scouts. I also was able to take part in the Jamboree leadership meetings held in the evenings as I was the only American boy scout representing a country. In these meetings special activities that were planned for the following day were discussed and I was able to interact with leaders from international and national troops. Although our troop spoke different languages, communication was not difficult since we all spoke English as well. I learnt a lot, not just about being a leader, but also how different countries did things in scouting, especially in a troop since there were 4 countries represented in our troop. It was a wonderful experience, and I made a lot of friends that I hope to keep in touch with.
