DEEK AL-MAHDI, Lebanon: Lebanese Scouts will head to Sweden this week for the 22nd annual World Scout Jamboree, an international meeting of scouts from over 160 countries.

Most of the participating Scouts and their family members gathered Saturday at Champville School in Deek al-Mahdi to celebrate the departure of the Lebanese contingent, for what many expect to be a trip of a lifetime.

Held every four years in a different host nation, the World Scout Jamboree gives boys and girls from every corner of the world the chance to meet Scouts from other countries, bonding over common experiences and learning from their differences.

These differences shouldn’t be hard to find: More than 38,000 Scouts are scheduled to take part this year, in Rinkaby, Sweden, at the southern tip of the Scandinavian country.

The trip was organized by the Lebanese Scouting Federation, the umbrella organization for the country’s 31 Scouting associations.

Lebanon’s contingent represents 11 out of the 31 Scouting associations. Although they hailed from different organizations, the Scouts wore the same red, green and white uniform to represent their country as a single contingent.

The ceremony was set to start at 5 p.m., by which point the stuffy auditorium was packed with parents, while the Scouts themselves stood around outside joking with one another and practicing the songs and slogans that each troop had prepared.

When everybody had assembled, the Scouts marched into the auditorium to wild applause, finally taking their seats to hear speeches and information about the trip, and watch a video from the organizers of the Jamboree.

The atmosphere among the boys and girls was jovial and upbeat. Marguerita Baltarian, 14, couldn’t keep a grin off her face at the prospect of her first trip out of the country.

While certainly there was some anxiety felt by parents about the more than 3,000-kilometer trip to Sweden, Baltarian’s family was very supportive of her wish to go. Her father, George, describing her as “far too excited,” seemed every bit as thrilled as she was.

Parents are vital to the success of the trip, as 90 percent of the cost for each member is handled by the youngster’s family. The Lebanese Scouting Federation doesn’t benefit from private sponsorship or state funding, meaning that the financial burden falls primarily on the families of the Scouts themselves.

Despite this hurdle, it was an opportunity that some went to great lengths to achieve. Elias Hajj, 27, a native of Lebanon now living in Dubai, returned to join the Scouts on their trip of a lifetime, to help out with logistics as a member of the International Service Team, for those over 18.

“I wanted to go to the Jamboree in the U.K. four years ago, but I wasn’t able to,” Hajj said, “So definitely I was going to this one.”

Not to be forgotten among the festivities, however, were the complexities of international politics. A delegation of Scouts from Israel will be in attendance at the Jamboree, and as Lebanese law prohibits any form of contact between Lebanese and Israeli citizens, the participants were instructed not to speak with or fraternize with the Israeli Scouts.

The Jamboree runs from July 27 through Aug. 8. Adults and older members of the contingent are flying out on Monday for extra training before the Scouts themselves arrive Wednesday.

When the official video from the Jamboree posed the question, “Are you ready for Sweden?” it was clear from the sea of beaming faces on the stage that the answer was a resounding “Yes!”