Extending old friendships

There are a lot of similarities between Scouting in Denmark and Norway. Climate, a Scandinavian outlook, knitted sweaters, for example, but there are some points of disagreement across the Skagerrak strait. “The bread”, says Bendik, a leader from 3. Skien, an NSF group from 100km south west of Oslo, “our Scouts refused to eat the dark bread that Danes eat.”

As part of the “everyone into the community” theme of the Jamboree, 3. Skein are sharing a site with Køgespejderne, a DDS group, from 35km south west of Copenhagen. The groups were twinned at SL 2022, and Køgespejderne attended the Guides and Scouts of Norway’s national jamboree last summer. There are slight differences in the age ranges between the associations.

The Norwegians came to Denmark via ferry. “It was a long travel day”, says Ada, a fellow Scout leader, “the young people had constant energy, from meeting at 7am by the quay, until arriving at Hedeland, 12 hours later”.

The Danish and Norwegian languages are closely related, but there’s still a lot of confused faces from time to time. “Frokost” is a noun in both Danish and Norwegian. Unfortunately, it means “lunch” in one language, and “breakfast” in the other. “The language barrier is hard for our younger members,” says Bendik, “but the adults have learned to speak slower so everyone can understand. “I don’t think the children have learned to do the same yet”, he says. “Everyone has been able to pick up parts, even if they have trouble understanding everything.” says Ada.

Bendik enjoyed the Opening Ceremony. “It was a pretty good set-up”, he says ,”and we were able to follow the general idea. “I enjoyed the jokes!”, he says. United by joint-scouting experience, the difference in bread-styles was soon resolved. “We are used to light bread, and we were able to source some medium-light bread here.”