Yesterday was the opening ceremony of the 21st World Scout Jamboree. All 8000 members of the International Service Team left the adult sub-camp at 11am to join the queue of 40,000 other people on their way to the main arena. On the way people carried flags, danced and sang songs from their countries. I managed to find myself a place to sit right in the middle of the field, quite near to the back but I still had a good view of what was going on.

The ceremony started with HRH Duke of Kent and Prince William arriving, walking though the crowd and being cheered as they went. Then representatives of each country in the UK came in with massive helium baloons. Each of the countries represented at the Jamboree were then announced as their national flag was brought onto the stage, each country cheering loudly as their country was announced.

 Today I had my first real shift at work. I had to get up at 5.30 to get breakfast and be at the security station for when my shift started at 7. I spent the first few hours of my shift taking care of all arrivals through the main gate with two others, then went on patrol around the plaza area, which was really good as that is where most people went. Today was the first of the day visitors as well so there were extra people on the site asking for directions.

You can keep up to date with the latest Jamboree news at http://eng.thejamboree.org/