Kajo was the eighth Finnjamboree organized by the Guides and Scouts of Finland. It gathered thousands of scouts together into the forests of Evo both from Finland and abroad. Heppu interviewed Camilo Herrera who attended the camp.
Camilo Herrera is a 27-year-old scout from Colombia. He studies International relations and is working with peace building in Colombia. He also has a small restaurant
”I’m a rover leader in my troop. I’ve been a scout for 20 years. I also promote a program called dialogue for peace.”
At Kajo Camilo worked with the videography team.
But how did Camilo end up at Kajo – and Finland?
”Why Finland? Why not! I’m Latino so I don’t plan a lot in advance,” Camilo laughs.
”Back in 2018 I met a group of Finns who were participating the Inter-American Scout Moot in Peru. I made friends with them. One of them visited me in Colombia a couple of years ago and told me about this event.”
Camilo was in Finland for over 4 weeks.
”I visited Helsinki, Kuopio, Iisalmi, Turku and Evo”, he lists.
”I joke a lot about the Finnish summer: it was super rainy and the nights were cold. But I had a good sleeping bag so it wasn’t a problem.”
- ”At night I usually went to the leader’s café. I liked to sign in the open mic nights. I sang in Spanish, which is my mother tongue.”
One of Camilo’s favourite things at Kajo was the wellbeing area and café for adults.
”We don’t have that kind of things in Colombia. I had my hair washed and braided and enjoyed a relaxing massage.”
”I loved the sauna and swimming in the lake! I had no idea it’s possible to build a sauna in the forest! We have saunas in Colombia but they’re not common.”
Camilo also taught salsa classes a few times.
”Latin music has very diverse rhythms and we dance a lot in couples.”
All in all, a visit to Finland was quite pleasent to Camilo.
”I would love to come back to Finland. I really enjoyed your country. All that’s left to say is kiitos, tack and thank you.”
- ”All that’s left to say is kiitos, tack and thank you.”
