That went as well as could be expected

Last night was the greatly amticipated international night.

Greatly anticipated by me, as there were a number of people from Rotary coming along to see what we are doing for the young community, and the fact that we are currently in a place that really isnt big enough to accommodate us all. 

Evidently not greatly anticipated by the Explorers by the fact I txted the lead protagonists halfway through last week to ask how their research was going, to be met with the unanimous response, "what?" 

Great. 

So last week was a study in getting peoples numbers, asking them what they would be doing, writing posts on facebook, prodding, pushing, suggesting and cajoling them into getting information, and working out quite what they were going to be doing on monday evening. 

At least I had a list of things to buy over the weekend in terms of the food... which I dutifully brought along. Only to have a txt as soon as I got there, to say I wouldnt be entirely happy with at least one of the explorers as they had forgotten EVERYTHING. 

Panic was averted as someone else had some information. 

The evening started 15 mins late, most people in uniform, with 2 games, ladders- a nice space taking up game, and crows/cranes. Then we launched straight into cooking. 

Kind of. 

with 2 tables to each patrol, one for cooking and one for washing up, we made them wash all utensils before starting, and then generally helped out with bits and pieces as the evening went on. just over 20 kids, 5 leaders and 5 people from Rotart meant that organised chaos reigned- and there wasnt much space to go around either, which was precisely what we were planning. 

The Seychelles team cooked up a lovely fish curry- with an amazingly smelling mix of spices, kindly provided by Braddles, it somehow tasted of lemon, even though none was put in it. Sri Lanka sorted out 2 curry's, Slovakia, a very good dumplings in cheese sauce (though it didnt look appetising, it tasted excellent), and a Swedish something or other, that I cant remember what it was called. 

All equally delicious. 

in the last half hour we had a presentation of each country, and then we all tucked in. 

The result was an excellent evening, full of activity, colour, constructive youth work, bustle and information. 

To cap it all off, we had 3 Jack Petcheys and a Queen Scout Award given out. 

Cushty. As Im sure the Explorers would say.