Budi Spreman!

If yesterday’s post was about the night before then today’s post is about what I remember I was going to write about yesterday. Confused? So were we when we spotted a strange gathering on people in Spanish Square on our way to Klub in the morning. While negotiating a potentially hazardous left hand turn through oncoming traffic I stole a glace right long enough to notice a group of people in identical baseball caps. Tourist season has arrived and I’ve been on a tour before that handed out headway as a mean of easy identification.

However, in the afternoon, as I went out on a (futile) hunt for a new top, I half discovered what was going on. The large, coordinated masses were local Scouts and Guides. There were boards of photos on display, tents erected and popcorn and candy floss being handed out. A small PA was set up on the permanent stage in the Square. At a small table covered in large trophies sat some official looking adults. Having answers that ‘what?’ question I was still none-the-wiser to the 'why?' But it did make ponder the pervasive power of Baden Powell’s brain-child.

A bit of Goggling tells me Scouting was first founded in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1915, under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That’s five years before the First World Scout Jamboree took place at London’s Olympia. It's obviously still going strong. I’d imagined a British Imperial export would have little place in an ex-Communist country. I was wrong. Just proving the Scouts motto of ‘Be Prepared’ – or ‘Budi Spreman’ in Bosnian – still applies, especially if followed by the words ‘...to be surprised’!

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