It was around the time our Slovenian leader informed us that he would be handing leadership over to me that I repeated the question I asked 15 years ago in Marine Corps boot camp; "What in the world have I gotten myself into?" Of course a Christian scout program in my home town isn't as physically demanding or life-altering as the military was. I didn't have a drill instructor constantly yelling at me. I didn't have to run miles in the South Carolina heat. Still, the National Training Camp I experienced on May 1st weekend was a challenge. First there was the language barrier. Although I've made a lot of progress speaking publicly, the fact is that it's still difficult for me to speak Croatian off the cuff in front of people. Adding to the challenge was the fact that I don't know a lot of scout terminology. This was the first time I was using words like "torch", "pine tree", and "outpost" in Croatian. But there was...
Serving in Croatia