American kids in Jakarta, Indonesia can take part in Cub Scouts through the Far East Council. The pack is a blend of American kids and local Indonesian kids. The American kids might have parents who work at the U.S. Embassy, for a private company, or even as missionaries. The Indonesian kids all have some connection to the U.S. – perhaps their family lived in the U.S. for a bit – and they all speak fluent English. The pack meetings are conducted in English, and are very similar to scouting in the U.S.
The pack is made up of both boys and girls – ages 6-11, the parents volunteer as den leaders, and we start each pack meeting with the Scout Oath and the Scout Law – just like in the United States. The kids go camping here too – and this is what my story is about. Instead of camping in the woods, they camped on a remote island! The kids were busy earning their advancement requirements and earned ‘belt loops’ for adventures such as fishing and whittling. As part of learning about ‘community’, the kids had a beach clean-up and planted mangrove trees to help the environment.
Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia. Scouts arrive and start the official program by reciting the Scout Oath. March 25, 2023. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia. Cubmaster Tim and Den Leader Mark help Tiger scouts Mateo (6) and Chase (6) fly a drone over the Java Sea. March 25, 2023. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia. Scouts having fun on the paddleboards. March 25, 2023. Den Leader Ishak leading the Webelos and Arrow of Light scouts of Pack 3455, Jakarta, Indonesia. April 15, 2023. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna island, Indonesia. March 25, 2023. Bear Scout Presley (9), working on her Whittling Chip for the Bear Claws adventure. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia. Catching crabs. March 25, 2023. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia. Bear Scouts Luna (8) and Kirana (8), along with Arrow of Light scout Ewald (11) washing up before lunch. March 25, 2023. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia. Scouts and parents enjoying the lovely sunset while dining al fresco. March 25, 2023. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia. Bear Scout Clara (8) roasting marshmallows for s’mores. March 25, 2023. Cub Scout Jackson (9) of Far East Council, Pack 3455, Jakarta, Indonesia. Asleep in his tent after a very full day of fun! April 16, 2023. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia. New growth on the island’s mangrove trees. March 26, 2023. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia. Scouts Alberto (8), Mateo (6), Presley (9), Jackson (9), and Ewald (11) discovering a hermit crab. March 26, 2023. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia. Scout moms Lisa, Linda, and Monica – the magic behind each adventure. March 26, 2023. Cub Scout Pack 3455, Camping Trip to Desa Laguna Regenerative Village Resort island, Indonesia comes to an end. March 26, 2023.
I created this video of a person I admire very much for his resiliency. He has moved many times in his short life, and in the past two years he has attended three different schools. To me, he is the epitome of the term resilient: the ability to recover quickly from difficult conditions.
Our second camping trip with the Cub Scouts was much more our speed.
We arrived by speed boat. It was an hour and a half trip, and the last part of it was wild! The water in the Java Sea was a bit rough. The boat hit the white caps, and we sailed into the air, and then landed hard. Over and over again. My head was pounding by the time we arrived.
We were greeted with cold drinks and snacks such as sandwiches and tropical fruit, and then we took a quick tour of the island and found our assigned tents. The tent was right on the water – with beautiful views. We were in a ‘glamping’ tent, so the tent was raised off the ground on a wooden platform. We had mattresses and little tables inside the tent. (I put my glasses on the table this time, so I didn’t step on them in the middle of the night!) We also had a ‘power brick’ that kept a fan running all night. I was also able to use it to charge my phone and camera batteries.
This was an eco-adventure and the kids did a beach clean up and planted mangrove trees to help the environment. But mostly, they just played in the sand. The island was small enough to let the kids run around. They also went fishing, they found crabs, played with sticks, and went paddleboarding and snorkeling. They earned their whittling chip and Bear Claws adventure. We even had another bonfire and roasted marshmallows. Jackson loved roasting them and then turning them into s’mores for me! As we crawled into the tent, we were both feeling pretty good. Neither of us said “I want to go home”. The second day was just as fun and relaxing, but by lunch we were ready to go home.
I have a nephew with a birthday coming up, so I created this card for him. I’m challenging myself to keep creating – the more I do, the easier it gets.
A fragrant yellow frangipani flower in the rain. Jakarta, Indonesia. February 12, 2023.
Roni (no last name) is a barber who lives in Jakarta, Indonesia. Here he is seen making a house call. February 19, 2023.“Unfriending” in the early days. Faces on printed photos were scratched out when you were mad at a friend (or sibling!) Photo was taken at about 5:30pm, on March 2, 2023, using natural light from the window to the left of the composition. The photographer used items saved from her childhood and marveled at how times have changed.
Fresh leaves growing on a mangrove tree. Desa Laguna Resort, Indonesia, March 26, 2023. Mangrove trees serve as a major “blue carbon sink”, meaning they are excellent at absorbing and storing carbon from the atmosphere.
Bamboo that has been harvested for use as building material at Desa Laguna Resort, Indonesia, March 26, 2023.
A baby coconut found on the Desa Laguna island of Indonesia on March 26, 2023.
A canoe anchored on the regenerative resort island of Desa Laguna in Indonesia, March 26, 2023.
The table is set for a Harry Potter birthday party in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 3, 2023. Eight year old Jackson is getting ready for his 9th birthday party. Jakarta, Indonesia, February 11, 2023.American Flag at U.S. Embassy Jakarta, taken at a colleague’s re-enlistment ceremony. February 9, 2023.American-style blueberry pancakes in the tropics, served on British Colonial Dinnerware Collection by Lenox. Fresh flowers from the garden, and fresh squeezed orange juice. Jakarta, Indonesia, February 11, 2023.
We have now been in Cub Scouts for a few years. Jackson has participated in two pinewood derby races, and we were prepared to do the same this year. (We even bought powdered graphite to lubricate the wheels), BUT here, they have LEGO derbys!!! Jackson loves Lego, so we certainly got behind this new adventure.
Jackson built his racer with Lego parts that he had. He ended up adding some coins for weight, by sliding them into the windows of his car. His Cubmaster called it the ‘PiggyBank Racer’!
Jackson won the first heat, but then his car went off the rails! The winners of the race this year tested their cars on the track in advance. We’ll be sure to do that next year!
I asked our Pembantu for a recommendation on who to take Jackson to, for a haircut. She found someone, and said it was easier for him to come to the house, especially when it is raining. So, Roni the barber now comes to cut Jackson’s hair. He does a nice job. Is relatively inexpensive, and we don’t have to go out into the traffic! I even asked him if he would pose for me as part of my school project, and he agreed. What a good sport!
Once everyone arrived and they changed into robes and selected a wand, we moved into Defense Against the Dark Arts class, where the kids decorated their treat boxes. We used paper gabled boxes and decorated them to look like luggage trunks. The had to glue on the Harry Potter stickers, use washi tape for the straps, and with some help, used brass fasteners for the finishing touch. (It was funny to see that many of the kids had not used the brass fasteners before and didn’t know they had to ‘open’ the backs of them to make them stay in place.) They tied a luggage tag to their trunk, so they could fill their box with goodies, and take them home at the end of the party.
We then moved outside for potions. I had three tables, set up in a U-shape. I put four kids on each side, with two helpers in the middle. I was at the head table.
We started by ‘hatching’ dragon eggs. I made the eggs in advance by forming balls of baking soda, water, and food coloring around plastic dragons, into an egg shape. I popped them into the freezer until party time.
We made glow in the dark slime. Mixing Elmers clear glue with a slime ‘reactor’, and then adding in the glow in the dark powder. The kids mixed everything up in black paper cups with tongue depressors, and once they had slime, they put it in a plastic jar with a lid to take home. I had printed labels for the jars, with everyone’s name on them, so they didn’t get mixed up.
We made popcorn to demonstrate another chemical reaction. I used an outside ‘camping’ stove with a clear glass lid, so the kids could watch the popcorn popping. They were suitably impressed, and enjoyed munching on the popcorn.
We next put vinegar into a plastic ziplock back, and then tossed in a tissue filled with baking soda, zipped the bag and tossed it out into the driveway. They kids got a kick out of watching the bags expand and then explode!
We made root beer floats. The American kids were like “ROOT BEER FLOATS – YEAH!!!” The other kids were like “don’t drink that!!! It tastes like medicine!”
We (attempted to) put mentos in Coke. Everyone had a bottle of Coke, and a stack of 6 mentos that I glued together, so that they would all go in at once. Well, the birthday boy put mentos into his Coke. I could only get my hands on seven 250ml bottles of Coke…the teeny tiny ones. I had to use one 350ml bottle, so the larger bottle went to the birthday boy. It turns out the cute little bottles were too small – and the mentos would not fit! The kids didn’t care. They shook their bottles and sprayed the foam, without the mentos. All in the name of science, of course!
I had one more activity up my sleeve, but I was nervous about it. I need industrial grade peroxide. The type you would get from Sally Beauty Supply. Unfortunately, there is no Sally here, so I ordered peroxide. Instead of getting 15% peroxide, I got 50%. Eek! As we were running out of time, we skipped this activity. The idea was to make ‘Hagrid’s toothpaste’, and mix the peroxide with baking soda, add some plastic spiders and watch it all explode from the recycled jam jars that I had collected from my neighbors. Oh well. Maybe next time!
After potions class, we headed to the Great Hall for cake and ice cream. The party was between meal times, so we had lots of healthy snacks out: cucumbers, tomatoes, hummus, cheese, almonds, etc.
We had lemonade and water to drink, and then a three-layered birthday cake, made to look just like the one Hagrid brought to Harry on his 11th birthday. Pink frosting, with green lettering: Happee Birthdae, Jackson. With two layers of vanilla cake and a strawberry layer in between there was something for everyone, and the birthday boy was on cloud 9! We also had a choice of vanilla or strawberry ice cream.
Once everyone had finished eating, they headed to the trolley to fill their treat boxes with popcorn, chocolate frogs (that I made from Ghirardelli chocolate and plastic frog molds), jelly beans (Bertie Botts and the ‘nice’ Jelly Bellies), and gold coins. They also took home the dragons they hatched, the slime they made, and their robes and wands. It truly was a magical birthday!
Platform 9 3/4 and Hogwarts Express: I had suitcases and trunks along with Hedwig (and cage), Scabbers, and Crookshanks at the front door. I also had a chalkboard with the message “Wizards Welcome – Muggles Tolerated”. Using a spring load rod and ring clips I hung backdrop with a brick design and the slit already cut – the for the kids to walk through. I made a Hogwarts Express sign with cardboard and paint. Once ‘aboard’, the kids changed into robes and selected a wand. I used graduation gowns and ironed on Gryffindor badges to make the robes and I used hot glue and paint on large chopsticks to make the wands. (include picture of sign, wands, robes)
Defense Against the Dark Art class: Brick patterned plastic sheeting that looked like castle stones to cover up the junk on my bookshelves. I set up Wizard’s Chess, keys with wings, greenery to represent Devil’s Snare, and a plush Fluffy – the three headed dog on this table. This is where the kids decorated their treat boxes, so I also set out glue, Harry Potter stickers, washi tape, luggage tags with their names, and brass fasteners.
Potions: Outside, I set up three folding tables. A head table for me and all the extra supplies. I had a cauldron, glass bottles with cork stoppers that were filled with colored water, and lots of vinegar, baking soda. I had brooms leaning up against a potions sign (add photo). The tables were set with gold paper trays holding all of the ingredients they would need. (Coke, mentos, Root beer, glow in the dark powder, Elmers glue, paper cups, glass jelly jars, tongue depressors, etc.)
Great Hall: I set up the dining room table with a tablecloth, cloth napkins, gold chargers, candelabra, stemmed (plastic) cups. Nearly Headless Nick was looking on. (a cardboard knight cutout taped to the door)
Bathroom: There’s a TROLL in the dungeon sign, with a picture of the troll – hung on the bathroom door.
