Discovering Denmark: Meeting The Little Scouts

Monday afternoon is a day that I think I will never forget. Ever. Because we were so late arriving in Denmark I had missed my first scout meeting with the group where Natacia is a leader. These scouts are the little scouts, aged approximately between 5/6 and 8/9 (grades 0-3). They are super cute and only a few of them know English, and it is very basic English at that. This weeks meeting, however, was not a normal meeting. For our meeting this week we went to church. In this service, though, many different people participated, such as the Kindergarten children singing a song, the little scouts took candles and placed them in various places around the church, and then the older scouts participated in Lucia. Before we went over to the church, we met in the church hall for a kind of scout meeting where the little scouts could practice Lucia, as they are doing it next week for their families. After practicing we played a few games. The Little Scouts could not believe that I had traveled all the way from Australia. They were all fascinated by my woggle, and one of the Scouts was extremely excited that we had the same badge (the world scout badge), as all the other's had the world guide badge, as the scout organisation that Natacia is with is The Green Girl Scouts. When we had finished practicing Lucia and playing games one of the Scout's Mother's came in with some spaghetti and chicken for us to eat for dinner, which was delicious. After dinner, we had to wipe down the tables and take our plates to the kitchen and put our cups in the bin. Natacia was helping in the kitchen and I was wiping tables, and as I can't speak Danish and they can't speak English communication was difficult, but we managed. I wanted one of them to take the jugs to the kitchen, so I pointed to one of them, handed them the jugs, then pointed them to the kitchen, and it worked. I used the same method to get one of them to put some rubbish in the bin. One Scout in particular was very fascinated with me, she would constantly wave at me, and try to talk to me... she was very cute. After we had cleaned up after dinner we put on our jackets and walked up to the church, so that we could get the children seated and organised. Sitting in the pews with all the Little Scouts vying for my attention, trying to keep them quiet was quite funny. Then, one of them asked me to say the alphabet in English, so I did, then they all wanted to hear, so I said it again. Eventually it was time for the service to start, so we had to get the Little Scouts to be quiet, which can be quite difficult when the only thing you can do to help is to make shushing motions at them. The service was lovely, even though I didn't understand a word, and the children were quite well behaved, and did their part well. Once it was over, we bade 'Farvel' to the Little Scouts, and home we went.

At home we ate our advent calendar chocolate, and I opened my second present, which was a Sudoku book. We then all sat and watched the Advent Calendar show, every night leading up til Christmas they show a short film, Mostly in Danish, though sometimes people talk in English or German as well.

We then watched a bit of the Danish version of Survivor, but being exhausted, we soon went to bed.

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