What you are about to read I should have written many years ago, when this experience was still fresh in my mind. Some of you may be able to recall that an email was sent out to you in January or February of 1999 that was to be the first of three emails which would have detailed my experiences at the 1999 World Jamboree in Chile. I was lazy and didn’t ever get around to finishing that story until my email account was closed and all data contained within it had been erased. I was 17 at the time of the Jamboree, and I am 34 now. What has prompted me to finally write my story down is a feeling within my chest that if I do not do it now, everything I remember will slip away from me into the darkness of my mind.

I tell you this so that you will understand why my account is structured the way it is. 17 years ago I would have been able to tell this day by day with names and more detail. Now I can only vaguely remember that an event happened before or after New Year’s and most of the names have been forgotten. Nonetheless, you will see that my mind has retained a lot of my experiences from these two weeks. It has been written as I remembered each memory; therefore I will sometimes repeat myself and go back to an earlier period. I have left my account this way in order to show you how my mind recalled each event. You may see jargon like “CSP”, “ASPL”, and other things; I will give an explanation here so that you will not be confused. SPL stands for Senior Patrol Leader, ASPL is the Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, and CSP is for Council Strip which is worn on the left shoulder.

I hope that you enjoy reading my account of events as I wrote this down for all of you to understand. The events on the next few pages have sent reverberations through the years of my life. Sometimes as I look back at them I ask myself if they really happened or did I just dream them up one day. I want to take this opportunity to especially thank my mom, Larry Edwards, and my dad for helping make my life such a wonderful thing through the Jamboree. Now go read the rest of this!

Shane

Jinyeong, South Korea

November 2015