What I noticed at disastrous scout jamboree in South Korea

IT WAS a 12-day worldwide celebration of scouting, 4 years within the making – however for the hapless British youngsters attending, it lasted simply 4 days. The twenty fifth World Scout Jamboree in South Korea was supposed to offer 40,000 youngsters from all all over the world the possibility to share cultural experiences and forge new friendships. But yesterday organisers introduced they had been ending the occasion early resulting from an incoming hurricane days after hovering temperatures of 35C brought on a whole bunch to fall sick.

The 4,500-strong UK contingent, the most important on the occasion, evacuated the positioning at Saemangeum for Seoul on Saturday, blaming poor sanitation, insufficient medical providers, a scarcity of shade, not sufficient meals and little consideration of dietary necessities.

UK Scouts chief government Matt Hyde stated he ­felt “disappointed” and “let down” by organisers.

The British Embassy in South Korea helped transfer UK scouts again to accommodations in Seoul and stepped in to rearrange actions for the rest of their time within the nation.

But what went so terribly fallacious? For greater than a century, the scout motto has been to “Be Prepared” for “any accident or situation that might occur” – however it seems the Korean organisers didn’t get the memo in what has turn out to be an unmitigated PR catastrophe for scouting.

As one in every of two UK journalists who made the journey to Saemangeum, I noticed firsthand a few of these issues. Many others weren’t apparent – because the British contingent, sandwiched between the Koreans and the worldwide scouting physique, The World Organization of the Scout Movement, ensured we noticed solely good news tales.

Things had began so properly. On Friday, July 28, I arrived with British 14 to 17-year-olds who had fundraised for 2 years to pay £3,495 for his or her journey of a lifetime.

We stayed on the shiny and spacious Novotel Seoul Dragon City. Each morning, scouts piled their plates excessive with bacon, eggs, waffles or Korean dishes on the breakfast buffet.

They had been unimaginable to overlook, their tied neckerchiefs looped over vibrant jamboree-branded T-shirts.

And Seoul’s streets had been quickly stuffed with scouts from nearly each continent as they employed conventional Korean costumes to go to Seoul’s grand palaces and the Bukchon Hanok Village.

The Scottish youngsters I accompanied to the Demilitar­ized Zone, the closely fortified border between North and South Korea, stated they couldn’t wait to get to the jamboree.

The largest battle was the 33C warmth which felt even hotter resulting from excessive humidity.

“We were told it was going to be humid but I didn’t comprehend how much it would cling to you,” Ailsa Russell, 16, from Greenock, close to Glasgow, stated. “We’ve been in hot temperatures before but we’re used to dry heat.”

She was proper. It had turned us all into strolling human ice lollies, melting slowly and dripping continuously with sweat.

Even with air-conditioning and shade, it was nonetheless difficult.

But all this modified after I headed 4 hours south on Monday with volunteers to the jamboree website in Saemangeum on the south-west coast.

The following morning, a media consultant instructed me I couldn’t enter the jamboree website because it wasn’t prepared. The Korean organisers had banned all media for the day. Cue awkward silence. There was a proof.

Two weeks earlier, heavy rains in one of many nation’s worst monsoon seasons on report had brought on flooding and landslides that killed 40 folks.

Saemangeum’s treeless jamboree website over an space of two,200 acres – twice the scale of Glastonbury – couldn’t take up the rainfall.

Some campsites remained flooded with out water and energy. Up to 10,000 scouts, together with the British contingent, must stay in Seoul for an additional day.

Then, after only a few hours, I used to be instructed firetrucks, aided by British volunteers digging trenches, had eliminated the water. The scouts would arrive, albeit 24 hours late.

On a freeway above the primary stage, I noticed a sea of vibrant tents and pyramid-shaped marquees. The floor was dry. All that was lacking was the younger folks.

Liz Walker, the chief of the UK contingent, was requested if the jamboree could be impacted.

“No, I don’t think so,” she stated. “The programme will go ahead. It may look a little different but the scouts didn’t know what exactly was planned so we will adapt, we will get on with it and we will just have the best time.”

With journalists restricted to at least one space, what I couldn’t see had been the campsites past view that remained waterlogged, attracting mosquitoes and flies.

Come Wednesday morning and now ­on-site, I observed a worrying lack of shade. The Korean organisers had put in over 1,700 shade shelters however it didn’t appear sufficient.

Some of the bathroom cubicles had been backed up with unflushed human waste.

The British contingent had organized for me and one other UK journalist to fulfill scouts straight off the buses for temporary interviews earlier than they arrange their tents.

Everyone was in good spirits, if weary from the warmth and travelling.

TV adventurer and chief scout Bear Grylls had arrived to ship a speech on the opening ceremony. In a short interview beforehand, he talked up the resilience of ­scouts and the way “young people are going to change the world”.

By now, we had spent a number of hours within the warmth with out air-conditioning. My high was damp with perspiration and I used to be wilting.

In the UK media tent, ­volunteers filed out and in to get video footage and interviews.

We had entry to ice-cold juice drinks, however the scouts solely had heat bottled water.

It was on the opening ceremony, as darkness fell, that issues started to unravel.

Constantly shepherded by a media consultant, I may see that lengthy queues and safety checks had been delaying folks from getting into.

Still, there was a convivial ­environment as worldwide scouts paraded previous in uniforms, waving flags and singing songs.

With a drone then whizzing round our heads, ambulances started passing by in higher numbers as nightfall turned to nighttime. ­

The ceremony itself was lacklustre. Too ­many officers delivered speeches and solely Bear Grylls’ rousing handle appeared to energise the gang.

At 10pm, native time, the speeches ended and Okay-pop musicians took over.

Three exhausted scouts plonked themselves behind me, moaning loudly concerning the live performance ­(too uninteresting), the lengthy queues and their 45-minute stroll from the campsite after their late arrival.

“It’s taken two hours, it was horrible,” one in every of them complained. “We need to set up our tents when we get back.”

Clearly peeved, my media escort determined it was time to depart. We wanted to search out the opposite British journalist who had bought misplaced within the crowds; hardly stunning as lighting was minimal and signage non-existent.

As hundreds left the world, ambulances rushed previous, taking sufferers to a makeshift hospital, whereas volunteers fashioned human barricades to allow them to go.

I met one scout chief mendacity on the bottom who stated she had suffered a panic assault, the end result of a “horrible” 4 days.

She waved me away saying her pals had been close by. The following morning, the British contingent discovered new scout interviewees for me to interview.

Many appeared sizzling and listless, sprawled throughout the ground however all had been on message.

“The heat is tiring but you push through it because what matters is the experience and meeting people from different cultures,” stated Sam Robinson, 16, from Devon. “We are drinking lots of water and carrying on.”

The others agreed. And their enthusiasm appeared real. No one was bothered ­about attempting actions apart from water slides or paragliding. They wished to fulfill different scouts, swap badges and study new cultures.

Luke Patterson, 20, who’s learning politics and social anthropology at Cambridge University, was a volunteer who had paid £3,500 to dig trenches and assist late arrivals assemble their tents.

He was enthusiastic and talked concerning the “challenging but rewarding” work and everybody’s “amazing spirit”.

But he did admit he’d been provided lettuce and rice for breakfast and needed to stroll all over the place after the positioning shuttle buses failed to show up on time.

“It’s all part of the fun,” he laughed. “It’s the most expensive diet I have ever had.” I puzzled if he was affected by warmth exhaustion.

By now, mother and father had been flooding social media to complain concerning the jamboree’s poor organisation.

They shared photos displaying their ­kids’s tent raised on platforms and one stated their baby was having an “awful time”.

Before heading to Seoul to catch my flight again to the UK, I managed to sneak away from my minders for 45 minutes to evaluate issues for myself.

It was a combined image: I noticed one scout slumped over a desk and ­paramedics wheeling a stretcher into the jamboree memento store.

But elsewhere I noticed Scottish youngsters swapping tales with Australians, and others enjoying video games.

At one meals stall, kids howled with delight as they positioned their toes inside ice buckets for an endurance competitors.

By the time I landed at Heathrow Airport, the British contingent had pulled out.

In an effort to salvage the occasion, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered limitless air-conditioned buses and chilly water – however the hurricane proved one drawback too far. Tens of hundreds of younger folks at the moment are being evacuated.

And classes should undoubtedly be discovered from the expertise. Let’s hope the scouts are ready to do exactly that.