Hey there, hope you are doing well. I am back with another fun and exciting story.
As most of you know, I am a scout in troop 400 based in Doha, Qatar. When most people hear about scouting, it creates an image of camping in the woods in log cabins and doing activities like rafting, climbing, and backpacking in mountains. Well, it’s not exactly the same when living in a desert country. In Qatar, we do not have all those options of cabins and green forests and mild weather. Everything here is DIY. When we go camping we usually camp in the desert with soft sand or hard clay and rocks, and we have to pitch our tents and then the camp-kitchen in that rough ground with high winds blowing like crazy! cooking with strong winds blowing is another challenge. We often end up with either undercooked food or food that is burnt. Sometimes we get to taste an extra spice unique to deserts – the sand! ? Wood chopping is not your usual tree branches, twigs and dried up grass. We get to chop pallets. It is not easy at all. One of the most uncomfortable things during the camps is the toilet. Our only solution for the toilet during the camps in the desert is to dig a hole, place a toilet seat on it and enclose it in a privacy tent. Not a pretty sight, but it gets the job done! Another issue in Qatar is the weather – I mean what do you expecting the desert? We are mostly roasting at 45C or swimming in 70% humidity, so most of our activities are based indoors. We usually do our outdoor activities during the mild winter season. Since I am on the topic of weather, let me share a story about my experience as a scout vs the weather. We were doing a hiking camp in the desert and were doing our campfire. We were not at all prepared for a weather challenge when suddenly the wind changed its direction and started blowing in the opposite direction. This formed a sandstorm. We all rushed to put out the fire and pack up before our tents blew away. We had only 2 cars and we had 10 scouts and on top of that, one of the cars would not start! 13 people – 10 scouts and 3 adults – ended up riding in one car. So, that was an adventure for sure. We surely learned a few lessons in teamwork, looking out for each other, not panicking and keeping calm, and being prepared for surprises. But that’s not the only one, I have encountered several similar situations with other scouts.
That’s all I have got for today. I hope you enjoyed my encouraging stories and I hope you also have similar stories to tell. For more info on scouts in Qatar please check the link below.
You must be excited after hearing those great stories. Well, guess what, I got more.
Who am I? I am Ibraheem Qidwai and I am the SPL (Senior Patrol Leader) in the troop 400 based in Doha, Qatar. I’m here telling you all the stories and how it’s like being the SPL. When you are an SPL you have lots of responsibilities and duties on your hand, the biggest of which is managing the scouts. Some scouts will listen and some scouts have a different mindset, but I have to try and make them do the right thing and try to do whatever is best for them. When I am SPL I am not a boss rather a leader, you might be wondering what is the difference between a boss and a leader? A boss is the head of a group but he is mainly a dictator and commands the rest of the members on what to do. As for the leader, the leader shows the team how to do it and does it with them, (picture below for reference). Being an SPL is one of the greatest responsibilities which is given by the Parents, scout leaders, and scouts themselves, to a scout. The SPL is the role model of the troop. Whatever the SPL does the scouts follow, the SPL leads by example. His right or wrong actions will trickle down to other scouts. An SPL represents the whole troop which I think is a heavy trust. As an SPL I have to keep track of everyone’s rank advancements. If a scout is lacking and is not completing his ranks on time it’s my responsibility to help him and motivate him in completing his rank. That’s all I have to say for today. If you want to know more about scouting leadership please click on the link below to get more information.
Look who could not resist coming back and here I was thinking I should come to you. Absurd right?
Anyway today I have for you a good tale. Keep in mind this is my own adaptation of a story. A man from the English Isles named Jack was cutting stone (He was a stone cutter), Jack was thinking “if only I had more money and less work”, One day on jacks way from work he saw the sun and thought about how it was hot and it was powerful and he wished to become it, God heard Jack and made him the sun. Soon Jack saw a cloud in the sky and thought how peaceful it was and thought it must be very powerful and more powerful than the sun and wished to be it, God heard him and made him the cloud, Soon jack saw a black cloud and thought it was very powerful because it could absorb other clouds and make rivers so he wished to be the river. Jack was floating in a river when he saw a boulder and then thought “I FOUND IT I FOUND IT THE MIGHTIEST THING A ROCK” Jack wished to be a rock and god made him a rock, soon jack came across a stonecutter, the man took a rock and broke the rock, it made Jack realize that the stone cutter is the true mightiest and he wished to be it, God told him “But Jack you are the stonecutter”. The moral of this story is that you should be happy with what you are, you never truly realize your worth till you see it from a different perspective just like jack. That’s all I have for you today, I think I’m gonna take a long nap.
Well, I have more for you. We will be covering the role of an SPL (Senior Patrol Leader). The SPL is the person who takes care of meetings instead of the scoutmaster. The scoutmaster only does holds the meeting when either the ASPL’s (Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders) and the SPL are not available or they don’t have one, Whats an ASPL? An ASPL is the Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, they assist the SPL and are backups for if the SPL is not at the meeting. The SPL and ASPL’s role is to plan the meeting and make sure it goes accordingly. Anyway that’s all I have for you right now, but you might see me sooner than you think.
Remember me? Of course, you do. Today I am gonna tell you what happens at boy scout campouts. In boy scout campouts each scout is responsible for a certain thing in their patrols area. Now your probably wondering what a patrol is, well a patrol is a division of a group of people in the troop. Each patrol works together, a patrol has a designated spot to set up their tents. Patrols have to keep there area tidy and there tents close to other patrol members. A patrol cooks together and helps eachother set up tents. During boy scout camp outs scouts are given a role in there patrol an example of this is cook, if someone is given cook they will cook for there patrol and if someone is given fireman/firelighter they go light the fire. Anyway that’s all I have for you for now.
My name is Hamdan, I am a life scout. I want to share my scouting journey with you. We are a troop based here in Doha (Qatar). Our adventures are usually exploring the desert lands of Qatar. We go on many campouts, our campouts occur once a month and are extremely fun, some of the activities we do during our campout are cycling, hiking, geocaching, kayaking, and orienteering, we have explored the mangroves on the purple island, the umm bab beach, zakreet, and sea line beach/desert. We have camped in all these places. Some service projects we have done is planting trees at QF Park, we helped clean the mangroves on purple island, we even helped a community school build benches and my favorite was the food drive for the workers, it was my favorite because we went to a labor camp and we saw how the laborers live, it makes you realize you should appreciate what you have and not take the things you have been given for granted. It also makes you feel you really need to give the world more than you take, especially the less fortunate people out there. These are some of the things I wanted to share with you, I put some pictures down there you guys can look to see how it feels to explore the adventures in Qatar as a scout. Scouting has opened up for me a good platform to make really good friends for life.
