The opening arena show featured a patchwork quilt of uniform colors representing the 168 countries in attendance. The crowd for the closing show will look more like multicolored confetti, since many Scouts have traded shirts with participants from other countries. The “One World, One Promise” jamboree theme unifies the 38,000 participants in the brotherhood of Scouting. A tremendous fireworks display will cap the closing ceremonies for a jamboree that celebrated the 100th anniversary of Scouting’s founding by Robert Baden-Powell.

BSA Scouts and Venturers will get little rest following the show. The troops begin staggered departures by bus beginning at 3 a.m., Wednesday morning. Participants from the Southern and Northeast Regions will head to Heathrow and Gatwick Airports near London for flights home. Those from the Western and Central Region will begin 2 days of touring London landmarks before their flights home.

Scott Daniels is the managing editor Scouting magazine. He is submitting a daily blog post from the 21st World Scout Jamboree, Hylands Park, Essex, England.

Jane Goodall, anthropologist and environmentalist visted with Scouts at the jamboree’s Global Development Village. Goodall praised the Scouts for their efforts to protect the environment and said more environmental education for youth worldwide is necessary so they can make a difference in their world.

Scouts are scheduled to speak with U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Saturday. Astronaut Clay Anderson earned his First Class Scout rank in Ashland, Neb.

Scott Daniels is the managing editor Scouting magazine. He is submitting a daily blog post from the 21st World Scout Jamboree, Hylands Park, Essex, England.

In order to commemorate that event, a special ceremony was held at the arena on the Jamboree site. Called the Sunrise Ceremony, it celebrated the birth of Scouting and how far it has come since then.

To be there for the ceremony, I had to get up a 5:15 a.m. and march with the rest of my troop and subcamp all the way to the arena. Unfortunately, I was a little tired as I had stayed up late the night before. However, any tiredness didn’t interfere with my experience that day.

The ceremony opened with a live broadcast from Brownsea Island where two Scouts from each nation attending the Jamboree were gathered. After the Chief Scout of the United Kingdom, Peter Duncan, blew the Kudu horn as Baden-Powell had done 100 years ago, Scouts from Brownsea Island led Scouts at the Jamboree in reciting the Scout promise.

While I was reciting the oath, I became filled with gratitude for all that Scouting has done for me. I want to repay it somehow, and I think I can do that best by becoming a future leader for other Scouts.

My favorite part of the ceremony, though, was seeing the flags of all the countries attending the Jamboree parading through the arena. It was amazing to think that from 20 boys on a small island in England 100 years ago, the Scouting movement has grown to include thousands of Scouts in 158 countries.

It was almost overwhelming to think that from one small seed from Baden-Powell grew a large tree that now covers the whole world.

Cole Houston is submitting blog posts from the World Jamboree in England. He is from Troop 526, New York, N.Y.

Two scouts from each of the 158 countries participating were chosen to go to Brownsea Island, the birthplace of Scouting, on Tuesday night to wake up the next day and re-enact the very first Scouting sunrise ever. The rest of the Scouts were in the arena watching it all happen.

The Chief Scout of the United Kingdom, Peter Duncan, blew the actual “Kudu Horn” that Baden-Powell blew a century ago. As he blew it three times, just like Baden-Powell did, more than 300 Scouts on Brownsea Island gathered around the circle of the world crest emblem to celebrate this wonderful event.

After this, they had some dancing from different Scouts with a whole program going on. Towards the end of the ceremony the dancers started to wave paper doves in the air as a sign of peace. Then, within five minutes, real doves were flying all over the arena. This was a very beautiful sight to see.

Then the announcers told us to shake the hand of the man or woman on our left and our right to show friendship. For the next half-hour, we were challenged to get 100 signatures on this brand new neckerchief they gave us that says “Scouting Sunrise” on it. This I enjoyed very much because it showed how people from all over the world can work together for peace and friendship.

As the motto of the Jamboree goes: “One World, One Promise.”

After the show they had religious services for everyone to start off the new century of Scouting on the right foot. I attended the service for the Eastern Orthodox faith, which was made up of mainly Greek Scouts and Russian Scouts.

Towards the later half of the day, all of the American Troops handed out popcorn to whoever stopped by to have some, because each country there had a food sample festival, and popcorn is an American-invented snack.

At night we were at a “Gifts for Peace” concert, which was another celebration for the centenary of Scouting. Instead of Madonna coming, Madooona came, and instead of Coldplay, we had Cool Play. It was a nice concert to go to though.

Then we came back to our campsites and called it a day. Today our activities were canceled due to a lack of buses. The activity was called Splash. I heard a lot of good things about this event and the people from Splash said that they were going to make it up to us.

Looks like I have the rest of the day to look around the Jamboree some more.

Gregory Gounardes is submitting blog posts from the World Jamboree in England. He is from Troop 715, Brooklyn, N.Y.

The focused calm of a 20-minute tai-chi meditation quickly gave way to cheers and singing as the excited Scouts paraded with their national flags to the ceremony site on the southern shore of the island.

Broadcast worldwide via satellite TV, U.K. Chief Scout Peter Duncan opened the festivities by blowing the same kudu horn that Baden Powell had used at the camp. (A kudu is a large antelope-like animal in South Africa with twisted prong horns.)

The Chief Scout then asked the Scouts to rededicate themselves to the movement by raising their hand in the Scout sign and reciting the Scout promise in his or her own native language. The blended voices provided a dynamic illustration of the jamboree’s theme, “One World, One Promise.”

British Scout Alastair Frankl then showed how Scouting’s mission remains as true today as it did 100 years ago by reciting Baden-Powell’s words. “Our aim is to bring up the next generation of useful citizens with a wider outlook than before and thereby develop goodwill and peace in the world with comradeship and co-operation.”

B-P continued to say that this would be “in place of the prevailing rivalry between classes, creeds, and countries which have done so much in the past to produce wars and unrest.”

The ceremonies concluded with each Brownsea Scout crossing the Peace Bridge, giving the Scout sign, and shaking the hand of a Scout from another country.

“I feel greatly honored to participate in this ceremony,” said a Scout from the United States. A Scout from Korea added, “My heart was thumping with excitement as the Chief Scout blew the Kudu horn.”

Besides the Scouts on Brownsea Island and those at the World Jamboree site in Hylands Park, millions of Scouts around the world observed the centenary today by reciting the Scout Promise in their own cities, towns, and villages.

Scott Daniels is the managing editor Scouting magazine. He is submitting a daily blog post from the 21st World Scout Jamboree, Hylands Park, Essex, England.

Watch video from the opening ceremony of the World Jamboree in England.

Video courtesy of the World Scout Bureau.

My group went to a train station that was out of commission but does little tours every Sunday. We were then put into two groups at the train station. One group’s job was to to clean up the train tracks, such as removing scrap metal and pulling up weeds. The other group, which was the group that I was in, had to find every piece of wood we could find without cutting down a tree, from things such as old boxes and doors. We had to take the wood and cut them into pieces with manual saws. We had to cut them into the right size because this wood would be put into the train to burn as fuel.

After we all worked like dogs with the saws for a really long time, one of the staff members at the station came and took out an electric saw and got it done 1-2-3.

We took a lunch break and right after that we took a long walk to a very old church. From what I believe this church was built in the 12th century. After the almost three-mile walk, we realized that we had been going to wrong way the entire time so we went back to the train station and waited for the “coach” to pick us up and go back to the site.

When we got back to the site, me and some of my friends from my troop went to the supermarket on the camp and picked up a few goodies to munch on. Then we were sent on grub duty to pick up dinner and cook it. Then after that went out to look at all of the different subcamps.

After that we came back and called it a night. Tomorrow morning is Scouting Sunrise, which will mark the exact anniversary of the centenary of Scouting and should be an awesome ceremony.

Gregory Gounardes is submitting blog posts from the World Jamboree in England. He is from Troop 715, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Then we arrived at the Jamboree site in Hylands Park, Chelmsford. Then we set up our site. An English troop from Shropshire came over to help us, and, later, we met members of the Somerset, U.K., troop camped next to us. They are a very nice troop; very fun, but a bit more low-key than some of the other English troops. That day, one of the boys in our troop started playing his bagpipes outside our site, and a whole bunch of Scots came over and started dancing to the music. That was really fun.

The next day was the opening ceremony. The ceremony was wonderful, but my favorite part was seeing all the waving flags in our subcamp before the ceremony. Later that night there was a camp-wide dance party — known to the British as “The Rave” — at the main arena. It was a lot of fun.

Yesterday, we went to the Gilwell Adventure. There we saw exhibits about the history of Scouting, visited a Scout amusement park (I tried stilts there), exhibited Scout skills and ran through a challenge course. Later that night there was a subcamp campfire where all the contingents in the subcamp showed off parts of their culture. My favorite part of that day by far was meeting people. I met a boy from Italy, a girl from the Netherlands and a girl from Hungary. It was a lot of fun.

Today I visited the Elements site at the Jamboree, where I took a course from the Germans on water conservation. I also met a bunch of Russians there.

I’ve had a great time at the Jamboree so far, and am looking forward to the rest.

Cole Houston is submitting blog posts from the World Jamboree in England. He is from Troop 526, New York, N.Y.

Once we landed we started touring immediately. Our first stop was Windsor Castle. Though everybody on the tour was half awake, we still enjoyed seeing it. The first thing I had a hard time adapting to was being on a bus that we had to call a “coach” and the driver being on the other side of it.

After all of the touring of the day we arrived at the university where we are staying. All of the dorms are single-man dorms with a common hallway and a shared kitchen. Seeing all of the Scouts from the Northeast and Southern regions there was pretty cool. We then had dinner.

The next day we woke up at 6:30 and ate breakfast and took a tour of London and went to places such as Westminster Abby, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace. It was really cool seeing all of these places, especially the guards with the big hats who had to stay still.

On the final day of touring we went to the Tower of London and there we saw Scouts from Belgium and Germany. We all got into deep conversations and spoke as much as we could to understand each other. We took pictures and had a great time.

We then went to the National Maritime Museum and it was cool thinking that I was in the center of the world at that point.

When we arrived at the Jamboree site, it wasn’t as hot as it was at National in 2005. We took an extremely long walk with our heavy bags to our site, and when we got there, we were assisted by the United Kingdom Scouts to set up our sites and tents. We were very grateful because that was a very good deed of them to do. Plus since we have a common language it was easy to communicate with each other.

Yesterday, day two of Jambo, we had opening ceremonies, and let me tell you, was it huge. Each subcamp had its own, then there was the big one. My site is in Jungle Subcamp. At the big opening ceremony, seeing flags and different cheers from all over the world was probably the greatest thing I saw because the pride of each country was just so large and it was amazing to be in a common place with each other and to be very peaceful with one another.

I had the pleasure of going to a Greek Restaurant last night because I am of Greek descent. It was nice talking to them in Greek as well. Today our activities were canceled due to major rain last night but walking around the Jamboree has been so much fun so far.

Gregory Gounardes is submitting blog posts from the World Jamboree in England. He is from Troop 715, Brooklyn, N.Y.

The jamboree site has its share of mud bogs, but a couple days of sunshine should dry them up. Temperatures are quite cool and pleasant, unseasonable for this time of year. Sunscreen is a must to keep from burning in the bright sunshine.

Many of the jamboree’s program activities take place off-site. Buses transport Scouts to different venues for aquatics, service projects, and a tour of Gilwell Park, home of wood badge and the U.K. Scout Association. Scouts leave after breakfast, carry a sack lunch with them for the road, and return to camp before dinner.

My blog will be on hiatus for a few days, since I’m leaving tonight for Brownsea Island. A 6 o’clock sunrise celebration on Wednesday, August 1, marks the 100th anniversary of Scouting. It’s a date that celebrations will occur around the world.

Brownsea Island is where Baden-Powell took 20 boys camping from all social-economic levels of London to test his “scheme” for Scouting. That scheme, or program, included outdoor living and cooking using the patrol method, a guide to leadership, competitive games, and, of course, fun. A year later, B-P wrote his Handbook for Boys.

Two Scouts from the United States have been selected to camp on the island with representatives of other jamboree countries. They will participate in the sunrise celebration on Wednesday, and I’ll have a full report for Thursday’s blog.

Scott Daniels is the managing editor Scouting magazine. He is submitting a daily blog post from the 21st World Scout Jamboree, Hylands Park, Essex, England.