www.scouting.org.za 0860SCOUTS

ScoutingAboutNews from the South African Scout Association.

CONGRATULATIONSSPRINGBOK SCOUTS

Ruth Alexandra Smit - Free State

Arianna Abaroa - Western Cape

Ronnie Kellerman - Western Cape

Brian Tompkins - Western Cape

Tristan Goldie - Western Cape

Anna-Marie Greyling - Western Cape

Amy Collyer - KwaZulu Natal

Laura-Anne Murphy - KwaZulu Natal

Winter 2009

TWO SOUTHAFRICAN SCOUTSSUMMIT MOUNT

EVEREST

John Black of 1st DiscoveryScout Group and Robby Kojetinof 1st Germiston Scout Group,both of Gauteng Province, havesummated Mount Everest. Johnon 21 May and Robby on 23 May2009. Their fascinating andriveting reports of the event oftheir lives can be read on SouthAfrican Scoutings web site –www.scouting.org.za

Chief Scout’s Commissioner,Brian February, has sent them amessage of congratulations onbehalf of the Chief Scout andevery member of South AfricanScouting.

BADEN-POWELL AS EDUCATOR

As a 19 year old, I walked in to seehow the old Troop was doing andfound four patrols of Scouts ‘doingtheir thing’ after their SM andAssistant had walked out on theboys. I knew some of the PLs whowere with the Troop eighteenmonths earl ier when I wastransferred in my job toJohannesburg. Now returned, I wasunanimously elected their newScoutmaster, they would have noargument.

Fortunately the Group had afantastic Group Scouter who tookme under his wing, Soon had meWarranted and two years later I hadearned my Wood Badge.

What has this got to dowith “B-P as Educator”you might ask. Well inthose first few years asa “young” Scouter, Iflew by the seat of mypants, as the sayinggoes. Doing with theTroop, those things Ihad enjoyed as a boyand as so many“young” Scouters havedone before and since,complained about therestrictions placed onme by my D.C andP.O. & R., never considering thedeeper aspects of the fantasticmovement I had rejoined.

Only after Wood Badge could I seethat all this “fun and action” wasonly a part of B-Ps greater designfor Scouting. In 1967, Scoutings60th anniversary – Scouting SouthAfrica put out a pamphlet, writtenby Dr. Ernst G. Malherbe,Vice-Chancellor of the University ofNatal, detailing this subtle designB-P had built into his idea, originallyfor other youth groups to use; then,in spite of that, it grew into themassive International Scout

Movement we know today.I recommend, if you can find a copyin your Provincial Shop library, readit and be amazed.

He wrote that B-P was lauded,mainly, for his mil itaryachievements and very little for hisfantastic ideas on education. Manygreat, purely educators, have comeup with revolutionary systems andprogrammes in the past 100 years,they have been tried and have nowfallen by the wayside. Dr Malherbewrites; “Even in the mostup-to-date editions of the history ofeducation, there is hardly a line onBaden-Powell or a systematictreatment of his Scout Movement.

This omission iscurious, because to mymind, Baden-Powell isof far greater and moref u n d a m e n t a lsignificance than anyone of the othersmentioned. I amconvinced thatB a d e n - P o w e l l ’ seducational ideas willcontinue to live longafter the other systemscome to be regardedmerely as a museumcuriosity.”

We now see, how, so many of our

schools are building B-P’s outdoor

activity ideas into their programme.

We Scouters grumble because we

see our Scouts going off to camps,

hikes and Scouting type activities

with their schools and missing our

long planned programme. Maybe

we should be flattered, these

advance looking schools

appreciate, what Dr Malherbe calls

“B-P’s great educational

contribution!” You and I just use

that ‘contribution’ every time we

meet with our Cubs or Scouts.

Dr. Ernst G. Malherbe

DUTY TO GOD

WHAT IT MEANS

In his wisdom, Baden Powell wroteDuty to God as the very first part ofthe Scout Promise by which we alltry to abide. To help you understandthe great importance of Duty toGod, we reprint the followingbeautiful and compelling piece byHelen Scobie which appeared in“Veld Lore” Spring 1979.

THE GOOD LIFE

I live a good life . . . I go to Churchoccasionally, don’t cheat or steal . .. even help old ladies across thestreet – isn’t that enough?

Think about it for a moment. Whathas God done for you? Most peoplewould believe in a Supreme Being,a Creator of everything. It’s hard tobelieve that this intricate universe“just happened” and even harder tobelieve that it “just happens” tokeep going without “Someone”watching over it. Look at the beautyof the flowers – the magnificence ofthe mountains – the grandeur of

the oceans. Consider the mystery ofthought or gravity.

As Scouts we believe that there is aSupreme Being. We acknowledgethis Supreme Being to be a personalGod and that we have a duty to tryto know, love and serve Him. WhileScouting is based on a faith in God,it is also nondenominational.Scouts can belong to any branch ofthe Christian Church; the JewishFaith, Buddhist, Mohammedan orany other religion.

The first and most obvious way thatwe can do our DUTY TO GOD is bylearning more about our particularfaith by being active in the worshipand work of our Church, Temple orMosque. But DUTY TO GOD is muchmore than this. There is no point atwhich religion begins or ends.

The prophet Micah gives us apicture of our DUTY TO GOD. Hewonders what to give God . . . burntofferings? . . . whole rivers of oliveoil? . . . the sacrifice of his child? No!The Lord has told us what herequires of us . . . “to do what isjust, to show constant love, and tolive in humble fellowship with ourGod” (see Micah 6:6-8)

DUTY TO GOD IS NOT SOMETHINGWE DO – IT IS A WAY OF LIFE!

THE LEXDEN PATROL LEADER TRAINING UNIT

A GOLDEN JUBILEE

In July 1959 seventeen PatrolLeaders and Seconds from the threeTroops in the 2nd Durban Y.M.C.A.Group, made their way to thebeautiful Scout Training Grounds –Lexden – in the Northern suburb ofPietermaritzburg to learn somethingof the business of leading theirScouts, at a Patrol Leader TrainingCourse run by Dudley Forde.

Little did they realize that their fiveday adventure would eventuate intonow widely acclaimed, nationallyrecognized and commercial lyemulated twelve day course heldannually in several of the country’sprovinces each year.

The acorn grows

Over these fifty years Patrol LeaderTraining developed and thrived atLexden. The 50th course wascelebrated in July 1985, the 75th inApril 1994 and the centenary ofcourses in the fortyfifth year – 2004.The Lexden Unit is proud of itsassociation with the other Units inthis country, whos leaders attended

Lexden courses on the staff and theninstituted their own Units back home.

These are the stuff ofP.L.T.U. – these are notforgotten.

In proposing a toast to the LexdenP.L.T.U. at the 75th coursecelebrations, Richard Ballard, ayoung Scouter returning to the staffafter being a participant, senior boyleader and tutor, posed the question:What is it that makes Lexden sospecial to those involved?He suggests that one reasonis that participants and staffleave a course all feelingthat they have achievednew limits to that whichthey believed possible:another is the focus onpersonal growth of allconcerned, with specialemphasis on what is nowrecognized as ‘ServantLeadership’ in practice:thirdly and moreimportantly he suggests it is

about comradeship and fellowshipand friendships rarely found sostrongly or truly anywhere else.

Congratulations to the old timers,Dudley Forde, Fr. Ian Laurenson,Bryan Dibben, Neville Inggs andCraig Shaw, and every Leader whohas been involved with Lexden overthe years – and now to all thenewcomers, Guy Caws, Richard vanDam, Grant Maartens, John McCoyand their assistants who keep the‘flame’ alive and have made thiscelebration possible.

GET DOWN TO EARTH

GO ON A SPOORING HIKE!

It’s almost a lost art. Rediscover it.Spooring! Apart from a few Bushmen,game rangers, hunters andnaturalists, and a handful of others,including some Scouts, spooring – ortracking – is a veldcraft that isvanishing.

You will find thatwith Spooringyou startstudying wildlifeand Nature ingeneral, from theground up.Knowledge ofanimal tracks, orspoor, isi m p o s s i b l ew i t h o u tknowledge of theanimals, birdsand repti les

themselves – what they look like,where they live, what they eat, howthey behave, and much more.

Many Scouting skills are brought intoplay when you go spooring, as yousharpen up your observation of

Nature, your stalking, your ability tomake plaster casts, take photographs,make sketches, collect appropriatespecimens, enter notes in your logbook and so forth.

Your Spooring Hike need notcommence with a major bushveldexpedition! Start off “small” on anearly morning stroll on the beach nearwhere you live; around a farm dam;across a piece of veld or park close toyour city home, in fact anywhere you

know where small

animals, birds or even

insects l ive. From

there progress to

larger trips and

maybe, finally, that

visit to one of our

Game Parks where a

Ranger will accompany

you, on foot, and you

can discover the

“story” of what went

on in that part of the

world the night before.

Let Baden–Powell help you.

The first thing you should do is readCamp Fire Yarn No 12 in B-P’s“Scouting for boys”, entit led“Spooring”, Then go on to read CampFire Yarn No 13 which deals withreading sign and making deductions.Camp Fire Yarn No 14 “Stalking”, thenCamp Fire Yarn No 15 on animals andtheir behaviour. Then get hold of acopy of Vic Clapham’s VELD LOREScrapbook No 2 Hiking, Scrapbook No5 Veldcraft, Scrapbook No 6 Nature.You will be well armed to tackle yourfascinating adventure.

BOOK OF NATURE

By H Graf zu Castell-R – Namibia

We suddenly notice the tracks of aKudu bull. After wandering carelesslythrough the veld, he clearly stoppedfor lunch at a green bush, and thenstrolled to a camelthorn tree, whereit stood on its hind legs to reach thelower branches.

The prints indicate that he wassuddenly alarmed and fled in wildfl ight towards the protectivemountain kloof. We follow the tracks,and soon discover that the Kudu’salarm was well founded. Next to thesharp antelope hoof-prints are thesoft catlike signature of a Cheetah.We examine the new tracks carefully,and detect the claw marks in front ofthe padded ball marks, distinguishingthe tracks of a Cheetah from those ofan ordinary leopard. Yes, there canbe no doubt that the hunter is thechampion runner of the AnimalWorld, and he was giving chase at fullspeed for, like the greyhound, theprints of it’s hind feet are on theoutside and in front of those of it’sfront feet.

The exciting story of the hunt unfoldsitself to our observant eye. The Kudu,

leaving deep tracks, follows aweaving path towards safety, but thehunting Cheetah follows his quarry ina straight line, cutting out the curves,and must be closing the gap fast.True enough, we gaze at a chaoticpattern of prints where the proudKudu was brought to bay, mortallywounded and finally killed. A dragspoor tells us that the Cheetah triedto drag its prey, but found it tooheavy. So it ripped the stomach opento reach the soft meat it prefers. TheCheetah’s satisfaction in its victory isclearly etched in the sand, where itslong tail swept the ground where itfeasted. After the meal a lazy roll inthe sand, and then a doze in theshade of a green bush.

Not much remains of his victim. A fewbones and strips of hide, the onceproud pair of horns and the strippedrib bones are scattered over a widearea. The Animal Health Inspector,the Vulture was first to come on thescene. During the night thelatecomers arrived for a meal, andtake what they can find. We noticethe broad soles of the fearless Hyena.He recklessly scatters the others andtakes his place, undisturbed by theircomplaints and stares.

From every direction the tracks ofJackals and other maraudersconverge on the skeleton to write theconcluding paragraph of this dramaof nature.

The literature of Nature is an excitingsource of adventure for those withthe patience to learn the art ofspooring.

A PATROL

“SPOORING MUSEUM”

One often sees only plaster casts ofanimal and bird tracks in Patroldens. Why not plan to provide a fullstory? Alongside the appropriatespoor casts, show other itemsconnected with the animal or bird: apicture of the animal itself; drieddroppings in a small bottle or plasticbox; specimens of it’s natural food;old evacuated nests; sketches orphotographs of its lair, etc. etc.

Every Patrol should make a specialeffort to collect and display such asthe above, that relate to the Patrol’sown totem animal or bird.

2nd Lexden PLTU Course with Dudley Fordeseated in the middle.

Contributions can be:Posted to: The Editor, P.O. Box 1733, Port Elizabeth 6000

Faxed to: 041 585 8513 - Email to: scout101@marinelitho.co.zaEditor: Colin Stretton - Tel: 041 585 1147

B-Ps OUTLOOK

LISTENA further way of discoveringactivities that will appeal to the boysis for the Scoutmaster to save hisbrains by using his ears.

When in war-time a soldier-scout isout at night and wants to gaininformation of the enemy’s moves,he does so to a large extent bylistening. Similarly, when a Scoutmaster is in the darkas to what is the inclination or the character of his boys,he can, to a great extent, get it by listening.

‘Scouting’, the journal of the Boy Scouts of America,gives a delightful article on the value to Scoutmastersof listening. Under the suggestive heading “When ahike stubs its toe,” the author urges a Scoutmaster,who is on a hike with his boys and who is cudgeling hisbrains what to say to them on the subject ofobservation of nature, to listen what his boys aretalking about and to keep his own mouth shut.

They might be arguing together about a prize fight orsomething equally remote from the study of trees, but,

in listening he will gain a close insight into the characterof each boy and a realization of the way in which he canbest be interested.

So too, in the Court of Honour debates and Camp Firetalks; If you make listening and observation yourparticular occupation, you will gain much moreinformation from your boys that you can put into themby your own talk.

A few months ago I put forward a small suggestion inthe same direction, namely, when short of ideas don’timpose on your Scouts activities which you think theyought to like; but find out from them by listening or byquestioning which activities appeal to most of them,and then see how far you can get these going – that is,if they are likely to be beneficial to the boys.

So, too, in giving instruction it is better by far to getyour boys to debate a point or to ask you questionsthan to preach information to them. There’s a lot to begot by listening and observing.

The joke about new Scout activities is that they are justlike the new toy daddy brings home for the kiddies;daddy is the first to take to playing with the toy himself.Well that is just what it should be in Scouting.

April 1922

SCOUTING’S HERITAGE

I looked in a dictionary to make sure what the word“Heritage” means. Sure I got it right! Heritage –something which is inherited from ones ancestors.Tradition, customs and practices received from thosewho have gone before. The Scout movement has onlybeen around for just over one hundred years. Does thatentitle us to use the term “Scout Heritage”? It suredoes!

Not very long ago you could ask an older Scouter, “Didyou ever meet B-P?” He would show you his left handand say “That hand shook hands with B-P;.” then go onto tell you of the exact date and function where ithappened. How many of these old salts are still around?None of the individuals I have met in the course of myScouting; they have all gone home. In fact, I realize,that I am the oldest active Scouter in my entire provinceand I was a boy scout just the other day!

So what ‘proof’ do we have that Scouting was evenaround in our country prior to B-P’s death? Word ofmouth? Not very reliable, as those around now, onlyheard it from someone else and he, possibly heard itfrom another source. The only reliable source we haveare the old photographs, log books, writings, flags,posters and so many other interesting things lyingabout our Scout buildings and in cupboards and drawsof the old timers.

I have visited “Antique” shops, not only in my ownhome town, but on overseas visits and have beensurprised by the number of Scout items, books, cups,shields, trophies and even a seventy year old, handwritten and illustrated Rover log-book on display. Hewas asking R1000 for it. One fellow had one of ourornate, current Provincial Trophies for sale. It had been

stolen in a break-in at the Scout den only two weeksbefore. We did recover it!

A Scout Group might cherish the artifacts of theirhistory, especially those Groups who have been inexistence for a long time and have been “lucky” thatthey have had and have an individual who cared aboutthese things. So much of Group history has justdisappeared into oblivion with the Group itself.Consider handing over your Group heritage to yourProvincial Office where a caring individual, or group ofindividuals, have been set up to care for and displayScouting’s heritage.

Being a Cub is FUN!!

Six new chums join in!