Benoît, a LaToileScoute volunteer living in Strasbourg, is now visiting daily to see how the work is progressing. The teams from Jambville (the Scouts et Guides de France national centre, near Paris) have been here since 29 June. The volunteers are beginning to arrive to help with building but at the moment it is the professionals who are playing a key role, helping with construction machinery and the delivery of prefabs, hard-sided tents, large tents, etc.

Here is Benoît’s news:

• The work is going well, they are on schedule.
• This week mainly involves installing the "technical" village structures to welcome the teams arriving next week (around one hundred people).
• The only work in the villages this week is digging trenches for the water, electricity and phone systems.
• The Jambville equipment has been arriving throughout the week in ten trailers.
• The water supply will be provided via two water inlets on the Zenith fire system (no need for a special device, unlike at CitéCap).
• The self-service canteen and main kitchen are almost ready. It is important to feed the workforce!
• The hard-sided communication team tent is complete.
• The tents for equipment and food supplies are being set up.
• A journalist from local newspaper DNA (Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace: “Latest News from Alsace”), has already visited to gather information. It’s is going to make a buzz!

Over the day, 10 trailers left Jambville to take supplies to You’re up!
A few days before, the farmers had mowed the fields. Did you know that these are private fields? The Scouts have bought the year’s harvest (which will not be gathered) so that the farmers don’t lose out.
Secondly, did you know that the Zenith concert venue schedule has been interrupted for three weeks, just for the Scouts? The building will apparently be used as a fallback point in case of difficult weather conditions.

Yes, really! It is an incredible amount of infrastructure, all built from nothing:

– The roads in the fields, able to withstand the passage of small trucks and emergency vehicles
– The food supply service: a delivery, storage and distribution system
– The power supply for the villages as well as the main stage. Let’s just say that this needs quite some power!
– The communication network: well, there is the mobile phone network but it is not that reliable. So it is backed up by a network of walkie-talkies that use a powerful communications mast put up for the event, as well as by an old-fashioned network of landlines linking each village to the headquarters: communication guaranteed, even in case of a major blow to security!
– The drinking water supply system
– The firefighting pipelines at the right pressure: indeed, with 2,000 fires at the edge of Strasbourg, the firemen are seeing red just like their trucks!
– The sanitation system: toilets as well as showers! 15,000 people have to be able to take a shower during their 8 days on site
– The waste water removal system, connected to the city system
– The waste collection system in cooperation with the city council services
– The health service: medical points in the villages but also a real hospital, which will be built and managed by volunteer professionals. It has been organised jointly with the French army health service!
– The security service: we are expecting VIPs and 15,000 youngsters, just a short distance from the city. Everything must go peacefully, both for Strasbourg residents and the Scouts and Guides. There is also a plan B in case of a big emergency (such as a big storm leading to floods, like at the previous Scout jamboree)
– The village councils and the headquarters with their own infrastructure: a cafeteria for the service team, and so on
– 25,000 pioneering poles for the structures and an incredible amount of firewood
– And finally, of course, the activity spaces and the huge main stage.

All this... in 15 days !