January 22, 2003

Scouts find merit in trip

Local Boy Scouts attend World Scout Jamboree in Thailand

By LISA PERKINS
Herald staff writer

      When Boy Scouts Sam Elliott, Chad Rickman and Ian Wilson of Traverse City boarded a plane headed for Thailand and the 2003 World Scout Jamboree, they didn't know what would await them at the end of their 28 hour flight. What they got was the experience of a lifetime.
      Elliott, Rickman and Wilson, along with Sam's dad, troop leader Dr. Mark Elliott, were among the 20,000 scouts and leaders from 120 countries in attendance at the 20th World Jamboree held at Sattahip in the Chonburi Province of Thailand from December 28 through January 7.
      In addition to experiencing the culture of their Thai hosts, the boys were introduced to the culture of scouts from around the world, bringing to life the jamboree theme, "Share Our World, Share Our Cultures."
      "We met scouts from Japan, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, all over the world and shared camp with some scouts from New Zealand. But there really wasn't a language barrier. 'Hey' and 'food' were all the words anyone really needed to know to communicate," said Chad Rickman, a 10th-grade student at Traverse City West Senior High School.
      Food being a common language, troops from around the world shared their dinners with fellow campers as a way to get to know each other.
      "We had dinner with the Italian troop one night. We were expecting some good spaghetti but the main dish was scrambled eggs," Rickman noted.
      "A lot of the Thai food was hot. I'm not used to eating such hot food. There was an incredible amount of rice at every meal. They also use a lot of ginger and garlic. It was different than I'm used to but good," said Wilson, a ninth-grader at Traverse City West Junior High.
      The trio from Traverse City found a way to share a bit of local culture with others by bringing packages of dried cherries and more than 2,000 cherry festival pins to give out or trade.
      "Exchanging pins and uniforms is very popular. Everyone wanted one of the American flag kerchiefs I brought along. We got pins and patches from all over. It's interesting to see how different they all are," Rickman said.
      Throughout the 11 day program, the scouts learned about the world around them by participating in workshops on everything from human rights and the environment to robotics and communication technology. They also spent time performing community service tasks like building a waterfall for a local school using the few tools that were available, and cleaning up a beach.
      On the days the scouts ventured out into the Thai community they visited tourist attractions like the River Kwae Bridge, the Temple of the Golden Buddah and the city of Bangkok.
      "I was surprised by how modern some of the area was. In Bangkok you could see someone on a water buffalo right next to a Mercedes," said Sam Elliott, a junior at Traverse City Central High School.
      "I really enjoyed the hike we took out into the jungle too. We saw parrots, coconut and banana trees and climbed a rock face using ropes. When you got to the top you could see town on one side and very thick jungle and rice paddies on the other," Elliott noted.
      While the local environment was very different than the boys northern Michigan home, some things seemed very much the same.
      "That was one of the things that was so great for the boys, they got to see a world that is so different from our Western culture and yet the Jamboree showed them how much we all have in common," Dr. Elliott said.
      "It was such a great experience for me to share this with my son, Sam. I attended the '71 World Jamboree in Japan as a scout. I'm hoping to attend the 2007 Jamboree in England with my younger son, Matthew."