Three to five in the afternoon was an especially exciting time at the Eesti rahvus/vaheline skautide suur/laager or Estonian international scout jamboree "Seiklus/ratas" or "Wheel of Adventure", which wrapped up after 8 days at the Järvemetsa of Estonia – Tagametsa, located near Rassi küla in Järvamaa in central Estonia. 15.00 - 17.00 was when the jäätise/kiosk "Jätsla" selling jäätis (ice cream) was open and also the designated time when campers could take a dip in the Saarjõe River's cold brown depths. JÄTS is slang for jäätis, just like VÕIKU is slang, or an endearing diminuative for või/leib (sandwich).

On Wednesday of last week, there were 513 people attending the suur/laager, 62 of them from abroad. The largest groups from afar were 30 scouts from Iisrael and 14 from neighboring Läti. On the photo, Tormilinnu cubs Merili and Ellen are getting the last jäätised left in the sügav/külm (freezer) that day. In Estonia, skautlus is co-ed, but there were also tens of gaidid (guides) attending. The girls are wearing 2 kaela/rätid (neckerchiefs) – one is their usual lipkonna (troop) kaela/rätt and the yellow one designates their current alllaager (sub-camp), in this case IDA (East). At European scout and guide events, it is customary to wear your neckerchief 24-7 to identify where you're from and like Ellen, to even don your uniform during everyday camp activities. It does a lot to raise spirit and pride.

Riina Kindlam,

Tagametsa