An update from across the pond

[Cambridgeskip 658]

Evening!

So it's been a while since I put my head in around these parts. Read a couple of things but not really had time to comment. As well as this covid nonsense life has also seen me move house, my business take off, my dad fall ill and generally be somewhat busy.

However I thought I'd swing by and see what's happening and let those interested know what scouts is looking like this side of the pond.

Back in March all face to face scouting was stopped due to covid. Some groups started meeting online via Zoom etc, some stopped meeting altogether. My lot have gone with zoom although as I'm sure you can imagine and I'm sure some of you have experienced it does have its limitations. We've managed cook offs, mini pioneering, had some guest speakers etc. But for an organisation based on the outdoors and team work meeting via a video conference does somewhat stump things. Nearest we got to a hike was getting everyone to climb their stairs at home as many times as it takes to get to the top of Ben Nevis (our highest mountain).

Anyway back in August we were finally allowed to meet face to face although with strict limitations. Groups of no more than 15 kids, had to be outdoors (that's fine in August) but the really tough bit is the amount of cleaning and sterilising of kit and having to keep all kids 2m apart. It wasn't until we had to do that it struck me just how much scouting involves small scale physical contact. Imagine pioneering but everyone has to be 2m apart. Getting a fire lit where your mates are trying to form a wind shield, again 2m away. We've got by but it's been somewhat difficult.

Then we had our second lockdown and back to zoom it was. In theory we could meet again face to face as of two weeks ago but as there has been a massive spike in covid cases at the school most of mine go to we're sticking with zoom till the new year. Even then I can't see us being allowed to camp till June at the earliest.

There have been some bright spots though, particularly tonight. NExt week we have guest speaker coming to tell them about the work of Jimmy's Night Shelter which is Cambridge's main homeless shelter. Despite Cambridge being one of the wealthiest cities in the UK it has a staggering problem with homelessness and Jimmy's do some fantastic work dealing with it. Anyway the guest speaker asked if we could get a few questions in advance. I've listed them below, copied and pasted direct from the chat section on zoom. I was really quite proud of how intelligent some of their questions are, something that I think adults can learn from, but also quite touched by the innocence of some of them. Our scouts mostly come from pretty stable, middle class households where they are pretty unlikely to see many of the issues that lead to homelessness and it's quite a stark reminder that not everyone has the same privelidges

how do the homeless keep warm.?

how do they get food?

how much has the homeless population increased during COVID 19?

why is it so hard to stop being homeless or to find somewhere to warm and safe to sleep?

why do they sometimes drink too much alcohol

What is the most common way to become homeless

Why do they smoke when they know that it's bad for them.

why do homeless younger people get taken into orphanages and stuff but adults and elderly people are just left?

Why do homies people beg rather than getting a small job

do people fake to be homeless?

what is the average number of years that people can survive being homeless?

how come homeless people are never in families and are usually by themselves?

can the homeless be dangerous

Genuinely wish I knew the answer to some of those myself!

Anyway hope everyone your side of the pond is looking after themselves ok.

 

 

[TAHAWK 1420]

Hope your dad is feeling well soon.

[MattR 2659]

Sounds like a lot of stress to me.

The questions are good. Some are really old, as well.

[qwazse 4342]

Thanks ‘skip. Our governor just increased restrictions.
Our streets are empty, not unlike yours, I suspect.

Switching back to online meetings hasn’t been as successful for us ... especially since next meeting was supposed to be our Christmas party.

We’ve got in a few more campouts than you, although I missed the last two.

Your scouts are asking some good questions. Hopefully the answers will inspire a few to do some great things.

[qwazse 4342]

Here's an update from an Indian SM on the "longer" other side of the pond:

Quote

Would love to wish you n your family and scout group a very happy new year ahead ️. Thank you for your lovely wishes n have conveyed the same to my Scouts too. Situation is under control n steps to ensure not to spread more is being done.

 

My group activities and meetings are non operational from March but do meet online. Missing my boys n activities a lot. I often go through the Jamboree pics n cherish it.

 

If things change will surely try to make it to the S Korea Jamboree.. wishing you all the best.

Hope it helps to know we are not alone in our trials.

[Cambridgeskip 658]

On 12/10/2020 at 10:54 PM, TAHAWK said:

Hope your dad is feeling well soon.

Thank you! He;s a lot better now but still not 100%. He is nearly 80 so not entirely surprising!

[Cambridgeskip 658]

On 12/11/2020 at 2:05 AM, MattR said:

Sounds like a lot of stress to me.

The questions are good. Some are really old, as well.

The evening with the night shelter went really well. I certainly learned a lot!

For me personally one thing was seeing how things eventually make a difference. At one time we had a problem here with people leaving the military ending up homeless. They'd become institutionalised, often living in barraks with everything provided for them from age 18, then left 20 years later with no knowledge of how to exist in the civilian world. Anyway a good friend of mine from my university days is an officer in the navy and was telling me a couple of years ago that a lot more effort is now put into developing everyone to be able to live better in the civilian world, they have lots of training in the year before they leave and when he was submarine captain part of his job was preparing some of his crew for leaving the service. The speaker from the night shelter said that this was having a big effect now. They see far fewer ex military on the street than they did 10 or 15 years ago.

[Cambridgeskip 658]

On 12/11/2020 at 4:22 AM, qwazse said:

Thanks ‘skip. Our governor just increased restrictions.
Our streets are empty, not unlike yours, I suspect.

Switching back to online meetings hasn’t been as successful for us ... especially since next meeting was supposed to be our Christmas party.

We’ve got in a few more campouts than you, although I missed the last two.

Your scouts are asking some good questions. Hopefully the answers will inspire a few to do some great things.

Things have certainly moved on here since December! Just after Christmas we went into a full national lockdown with only the first hints now of coming out of it. Scouts is all online, although we have had some fun getting them through their chef's badge. Attached is the winner of the cake decorating contest. We set the theme of what you love most. Got to say I was impressed with this!

We're hoping for a return to face to face after Easter and hopefully camps in late summer or autumn, if I was putting money on it I couldn't see that being before September but you never know. Better not be too long, we're hoping to take the troop to Canada in 2022....

[MattR 2659]

8 hours ago, Cambridgeskip said:

They'd become institutionalised, often living in barraks with everything provided for them from age 18, then left 20 years later with no knowledge of how to exist in the civilian world. Anyway a good friend of mine from my university days is an officer in the navy and was telling me a couple of years ago that a lot more effort is now put into developing everyone to be able to live better in the civilian world,

Last week I put together bean soup packets and I donated them to an organization called the Healing Warriors Program. I showed up with 30 lbs of soup packets but I had forgotten a mask. No problem, someone came out with one. They work with lots of vets and they wanted to show me around. They were very thankful. The thing that hit me the hardest was that they give each vet a gun lock and a sticker. The gun lock goes on the gun and the sticker goes wherever the gun is stored so they'll see the sticker before they see the gun. The sticker has the suicide prevention number on it. I was talking to the lady and she said some of these guys had been on 9 and 10 deployments. Your comment made me wonder if the reason they kept signing up was that they didn't know anything else. Either that or the PTSD is so bad they struggle keeping a job somewhere else. Some of these guys are really broken. Anyway, I'll be making them more bean soup packets.