Roverway 09 ICELAND - IST Update
Monday 20thJuly to Thursday 23rd July 09
The 5 Maltese ISTs are: Claude Calleja, Mark Darmanin, Claudatte Magro, Mark O´Neill, Charmaine Sciberras.
Monday 20th – opening cermony & arrival at campsite
All theISTs were on the journeys’ depurture site at 6:30am. Their task was to assist the participants in loading all equipent and food on the buses allocated to each journey. There were 53 different journeys and these were divided into 15 collection points in a large parking area near market in the city we slept first two nights. Each tribe had the food and equipment packed nicely in marked boxes. After every tribe had departed to the opening cermony, the ists cleared the area and did all necessary duties. Then we also were taken by bus to the opening cermony. The opening cermony was held in front of Reykjavik univeristy. There was a great atmosphere of over 3000 scouts waving flags and chanting slogans in their own languages. Soon after the opening ceremony the Ists were given a packed lunch an then headed to collect their personal equipment before leaving for the Althingi campsite. Upon arrival the ISTs pitched their tents and soon after attended a familiarisation tour of the campsite. Soon after, dinner was served and then it was all free time for the ISTs to be able to socialise until it was time for all to go to bed - although one could still see some light in the sky as it never gets dark here.
Tuesday 21st – 1st IST training and Start of the Jobs
All the 300 ISTs were divided into 6 groups and each attended different workshops related to 6 different aspects of training and organization. The Maltese ISTs were all in group 6. Today we had the first three training sessions in the morning from 9 am to 12 pm. These were Camp Rules done in form of acting, The General program of roverway and description of the villages and the jobs to be done. The last workshop was conflict management and participation. Lunch and dinner during the roverway were prepared by kitchen on site so that ISTs could focus on their jobs. In the afternoon we were divided to 5 job groups. Four Maltese ISTs were assigned to the sporty village and one to the viking village. The rest of the afternoon was spent on general information of the villages and also preparation of the villages and workshops. Those ists at the sporty village built a small bridge and mud football ground on the sport village and other small tasks - as most of the equipment still needed to be delivered. After dinner we had time to socialise with other ists from all over Europe and also places like Korea etc. The Italans organised a very good campfire at the campfire site near the lake. Whilst observing the the sky colours, we sang and particiated in the sketches and songs presented.
Wednesday 22nd – 2nd IST training and continuation of the Jobs
In the moring the Maltese ISTs had another 3 interesting workshops. These were on how to survive the Icelandic weather, we then we had important session on first aid, and what to do in case of an emergency. The last workshop was on Earthquakes and fire, i.e. how to go about if fire occured or the unlikley event of an earthquake. After lunch we met again within our teams and continued the jobs needed to be done. We managed to set up the game invented by the Maltese ISTs - the bungy knights. It was liked very much by the leader of sporty village and it complimented the games in that area which were all related to very very wet Games. After dinner we had a presentation by WOSM on worldwide scouting events. These were the MOOT 2010 in Kenya, 22nd Jamboree in Sweden 2011, Eurolife 03 - a Waggs activity and 39th World Scout Conference in Brazil. Later we relaxed in the IST Cafe that was slowly taking shape.
Thursday 23rd – Outings at GEYSERS and finishing the Jobs
The Iceland team prepared a number of activities and excursions round the beautiful Icelandic country. These mainly included rafting, horse riding, high rope course, kayaking. swimming and visiting the Geyser direct. We chose to go and see the phenomenal Geysers located about 1 hour and half away from the campsite. We left the campsite at 9am and headed to the centre of iceland - seeing vast areas of landscapes. We saw a hydroletric plant and a number of spectacular mountain views. The first stop was near quite a large waterfall near the geysers. The weather today was very windy and cold - not like the rest of the days which were very sunny and calm. Then we headed to the Geysers and to a large souvenir shop. The splash of the geyser was impressive and a unique experience. Then we had the return trip which again gave us the opportunity to travel on gravel and dust roads of Iceland. We also saw wild horses running around. As we arrived at campsite round 1.30pm we had lunch in the IST dinner area. The afternoon was spent finalising jobs, as now most of the equipment had arrived. Now the campsite really lokked different with most of the equipment and tentage in place. After dinner we relaxed in the IST cafe. We were now eager for the arrival of the participants the following day in the afternoon. During these five days we were in constant communation with the two maltese tribes by sms and internet. They both seemed to have had great time.
Friday 24th – final Setup and arrival of Participants
The night was quite cold with the temperature going down to 5 degrees celcius at the campsite. Today we had to finish the final setup of the workshop we were assigned to. From 9am till lunch we did various jobs on the sporty village and viking village. After lunch we had an other two hours to set up the activities. Then at 4pm the leader of sporty village, Stephen took us on boat trip to a small island which its about 5 minutes away from the campsite by boat. Its was quite nice and we had the opportunity to see the wider view of the campsite. The campsite was quickly getting full up. The participants started to arrive at 10am. The Maltese Participants arrived in the afternoon. The sea rescue group arrived at about 5pm and the ice climbing group arrived at about 6pm. We met them and they gave us a brief update of the adventures and journeys – they all seemed to have had a great time. We also saw some of the photos that they took. At 9pm all those present gathered in the area near Gimle to assist to the Althingi opening cermony. There was a large screen displaying some photos of Iceland and also some pictures from the various journeys. We sang some campfire songs and also the offical Roverway 2009 song. We spent the rest of the night at the Gimle cafe as outside was quite cold. Tomorrow, the Ists will be busy for the first workshop session out of five till Monday.
YIS
Mark Darmanin
Momo D viking :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment