[birds chirping] [gentle wind blows] [gentle music begins] This is our tent.

It is very much cool.

It's actually pretty cool so come here.

We have builded it.

It only took us three hours.

Come on bro.

Okay, so come inside.

Well, open the door for your open the door for your people.

Got Ruffles.

Got water.

We got a sleeping bag.

My name is Ali.

And this is the tent that we built together.

It's very.

He's my brother.

It's 20 feet, 25 feet in total space from up and down.

And this is a pretty cool campout.

So if you see this, you can join the campout.

And let me show the view.

This is the view of the place that we're staying at.

This is the nature of Colorado.

Very nice place.

If you live somewhere else in the United States, you should definitely come camp in Colorado.

It is very nice.

Just like this.

And it's a very good place.

Just like this campout, it's very good.

Got everyone's tent.

Everyone take care of themself and cook for themselves.

Which makes kids learn how to do stuff by themselves.

That's why you should come to this campout.

[children playing] We are working with refugee Boy Scouts here.

We try to give kids an opportunity to do something that they wouldn't otherwise.

A lot of these kids come from backgrounds, and especially where they're living now, where they cannot get out, get into a place where they can think a little bit different, get their mind moving differently than just their home life, which, many of these kids come from very underserved backgrounds.

And, it's difficult for the families to provide these opportunities for them.

The area we live in is just not really a good area is like just a bad area.

What is like is like hearing a shot every day while you go to sleep at least once a day.

All the people I met in this Boy Scout troop, they all been through something.

They all have a story, you know?

And like, we're just here, like with y'all today.

[Muisc over the radio] [Kids sing along to radio] Traditional scouting has a lot of ranks and we don't focus on those advancements and those merit badges.

Partially, our kids sometimes are more challenged in, going through the literature and the material.

And, also, we find that it's sufficient to just focus on getting them out of the house into the neighborhoods, that can be more than enough.

Try to bring them closer.

See, your hand is so cold.

First time I put my hands in the fire.

No!

Come like here.

This is my first time cooking.

I'm actually doing good.

Oh my God.

[Off screen] This is your first time cooking?

Yeah, like ever in my life.

[Off screen] What are you making?

Eggs and bacon.

[P.J.

off screen] It's not real bacon.

Yeah.

Turkey bacon.

I'm proud of myself.

[off screen] Where did you get the Make America brown shirt?

I sought that out on the internet.

I heard someone say it a while back, and I just thought that was funny as anything.

I said, someone's got to have a shirt.

And there was.

There was a shirt someone had made already.

Obviously I'm not that kind of Native American, but the concept is the same.

It's some funny stuff.

Make America brown again, funny.

It gets people to challenge their thought process a little bit I think.

Especially if someone wants to make America Great Again.

We can make it great and make it brown at the same time.

[water rushing] [Off screen] Once you get in the water, bro, you won't feel cold.

[water rushing] One thing I try to do in this troop, we try to do in this troop is, provide a sort of bridge between cultures.

This scouting can be a very traditional Americana type of thing.

And these kids are coming from elsewhere, and we're a part of that puzzle of helping them join into this society.

[water rushing] [kids laughing and screaming] We're part of Scouting USA.

We don't follow all the same methods.

For example, we don't have uniforming.

We don't focus on the advancement, but we certainly get into the outdoors, have adult association, and we certainly have the same mission as the rest of scouting.

Where a lot of these kids come from, having uniforms mean the person who is in charge.

And where these kids come from, when you come from a place of war, it's two sides of people in uniforms, whether they're government or anti-government, and usually it means some form of violence.

And, it's not a place we want to go.

These are not memories we're trying to stir up in these kids.

[wind blows] So our phone rang in the Camp Shady Brook office, and P.J.

was on the other line.

And he started to tell me a little bit.

It seemed like no big deal.

To somebody who's working at a camp, it seemed like the biggest deal in the world.

The first thing you need to know is that this is a choose your own challenge area.

So what that means is that for some of us, we can put on a harness and a helmet, and that's as far as we want to go.

And that's cool, okay.

But others of us, we might want to go up to the zipline and try 1 or 2 things, and that's good enough.

And that's cool too.

We're going to guide you through that experience.

And all we're going to ask is that you do what you want to do, and what you feel comfortable is.

Exposure to the outdoors means different things to different people.

means different things to different people.

These ropes have to be in your hug zone so we can all practice that really quick.

Give yourself a hug.

Many populations are more concerned with survival and when survival is your main concern, our our human instinct, recreation isn't even on the table.

The most fun way to get down is the zip line.

And we all know where that is, where that platform is.

So if I do an element and I want to get down, I could go to the zip line.

It's this far platform that we were standing at.

There you go.

Then one right up here.

[camp guide off screen] You're doing awesome.

You're doing so awesome.

One of the biggest topics within the outdoor industry as a whole is breaking down barriers, building bridges and creating access to this thing that we all love and that we've found immense outcomes and benefits from.

And unfortunately, marginalized communities historically, have been oppressed and sometimes don't find those bridges.

[soft music begins] [camp guide off screen] Let go with that hand.

I got you.

All right, whenever you're ready, you're going to go.

Oh my goodness.

[camp guide off screen] It's totally ok.

I would't let you do it if it wasn't safe.

Woo woo hoo.

[cheering] Yeah!

Awesome!

Oh!

That went in.

That went in!

That counts.

[instructor off screen] Remember, make a pile of them on the ground.

Okay.

Remember, have it covered, guys.

Guys cover the tips, okay?

Okay.

Because you guys are really scaring me.

[instructror off screen] There you go.

Perfect.

And you're a lovely turkey.

You can do a different one, or you can do a turkey again.

I want to see you gobble.

I want to hear gobbles.

Okay.

You got to gobble.

Oh, yeah.

That's the way we want to do it.

You ready to lose?

No, I'm ready to win.

So it's best of three, rock, paper, scissors.

We are going to be playing rock.

paper, scissors.

My name is Werals Niyongabo.

I'm 23 years old and I used to be with the Boy Scout troop back in 2014 to 2019.

It's rock, paper scissors.

Shoot.

Awww.

This is my first week coming back as an adult.

But what's cool is that when I got here, I loved the, just the the fact that all the kids are here and they they're just reminding me of how I used to be.

And I could see them, like, taking the same steps I used to take.

How old are you?

Nine.

Nine.

So when I was a little bit older than you I used to do the same thing.

I used to be here cooking.

But never used to be like thinking of you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you think when you get older that you're gonna come back?

This program helped me out a lot and then I'm seeing it help out other kids.

I just wanted it to, like, run forever.

Feels good.

Amazing.

I love it.

I feel young again.

I feel nine years old.

Four.

Okay.

Oh, yeah.

This one's bad.

No, it's my turn.

Hello, guys.

It's your boy Ali from Mango House camping troop.

Here is where I'm sleeping.

Here's my two comfy pillows.

My stuff.

I don't know who's this, guys, but that's his stuff.

And this comfy pillow.

And we get free food since we go on the trip, obviously.

I will just show you stuff that we get.

Powdered milk, which is very good.

A lot of seasoning.

Melted snow from outside.

Soup.

Very spicy.

Right now if I want to I can make pancakes, or more spaghetti or hot dogs.

Just like, if you like this video.

Oh, I gonna take that back boy.

It brings up a lot of nostalgia.

Just remembering what it was like being a kid running around these campsites and stuff.

It's thrilling seeing other kids go through the same program.

It's a scout troop like any other.

It's just a bunch of kids just blown away.

Being with friends and family.

It's just a human experience.

If you think it's any different, it's not any different.

Just different looking people doing the same human things, you know.

Oh Lord help us.

Lord help me!

Oh my God.

[birds chriping] [kids talking] Guys I made a great choice to not be inside.

Go outside and take a nature walk with my brother.

We're going to walk a little bit, hike a little bit, and see what we can find and see what we can't find.

So let's go.

Let's get started.

Azad.

Azad.

Azad!

Let's go.

Just to let you know, this is very safe.

If we get lost, they'll come, drive the van and find us.

So this is not dangerous at all.

And this is the place that we're staying in.

I know it looks very small, but it's actually pretty good.

I first heard about this scout troop through a friend about 8 or 9 years ago, just a few months after the scout troop had formed.

We're working on packing up gear for this campout.

It's always a little difficult to know what to pack and how much of what things to pack, because, we never know how many scouts are going to show up.

Things that we know we need for sure every time.

Tents of course, if you're sleeping in tents, sleeping bags.

I've got the fridge partially stocked with stuff from previous campouts.

Pre-cooked chicken is the way to go.

In the freezer we've got only turkey bacon for us because we've got too many Muslims, and Hindus.

Plus I have high blood pressure.

Plus adults with their medical needs.

Can't do any pork hot dogs.

Can't do any beef hot dogs.

So this white board actually looks like junk, but it's actually really useful.

This is kind of our checklist for all of the gear.

It's a good way to make sure you don't forget stuff.

This is something we never get down so it was pretty dusty.

Whoops!

This is all the all the free uniforms we've gotten.

These things are like, it's like, like 50 bucks for a shirt and, like, 40 bucks for shorts or something crazy.

And actually, though, it's really not the cost of these things.

They have programs where people like to donate a bunch of money because they believe strongly in the uniform and they want to see kids wear it.

But the problem is that our kids just don't.

They don't care that much.

So we kind of have a conundrum here.

Is this like a shared ownership or is it personal ownership?

Because if we send them home with scouts, you're never going to see them ever again, ever.

And if we leave them here, then they're going to get all mixed up.

So how do you know who's who's?

So that's one of the reasons that those don't work too well for us.

I got socks.

Some of our some of our guys show up with no socks.

That doesn't work.

If we're going to try to put some boots on them for something.

The boots are all for the scouts.

We just have a variety of sizes.

I think with that, we got to get to our our, checklist here, and see what we've got to pack for this campout.

This is the spice box.

Inside the spice box, we have spices!

It'd be ideal to have them do this like in a typical scout troop they probably would.

And this would probably be very much frowned upon.

It's just a matter of we have limited resources and you have to evaluate, like, what's the best decision to make?

And so we choose to give a little bit more of our time, in order to make the whole operation run smoother.

We don't really have the luxury of, like, running first, running to someone's house and picking up some scouts and then bringing them back and then having them do this.

So, you know, we are accomplishing the goal of, like, teaching them how to prepare for a trip.

Yeah, we might just not be doing it.

The exact same way that Boy Scouts recommends.

Again, even though our troop maybe does it a little different, I think that's just perfectly okay, because guess what would be a whole lot worse would be these guys not having any scouting at all.

So I think we're doing okay.

So if they didn't have Boy Scouts, right.

First of all, there's just like the very, very straightforward and simple fact that if they're with us, they can't be somewhere else.

And that could be life saving for some of these guys or life changing.

So if they come camping every month, that's one fourth of the weekends that they're not on the street doing whatever they might do on the street.

Every weekend, almost in the greater metro area, kids are shot, the're car crashes.

There are all kinds of stuff going on.

There's drugs going on, there's gangs going on.

So this is one fourth of the weekends they are not doing that stuff.

You got your Jeep?

Yeah, you'll see it.

So prior to joining the troop, I knew very little about refugees.

I knew they existed of course.

I didn't know the extent of the humanitarian crisis that we face in the world, though.

I had seen a video or two about refugees and knew it was a problem, but I had never had a personal connection to it.

[soft music plays] Once I got involved in this troop, I learned so much about the refugee process and the traumas involved.

Just in being a refugee or asylum seeker.

No one chooses to be a refugee.

It's something that's forced upon you.

I wish everyone in our country could have a lot of empathy for those.

They didn't choose to come here, they didn't choose for their country to be torn apart.

Okay, guys.

Listen up.

Hey, we made it.

We are here at the, this is the Lily Pad Lake trailhead.

we're going to be hiking into what's called the Eagle's Nest Wilderness.

But it's a really special designation by our country, by our federal government that protects that land forever.

And I told you all some about, that when we went previous years.

I always, like, taking us here because in these wilderness areas, it is just really special to me to see these areas that are like untouched.

All right.

So we're going to be walking about, 1 or 2 miles into the woods.

All right.

So prepare yourself for that.

For bathroom, there's no bathroom out there.

All right.

There's no toilet.

But essentially, the best method that we have now, for pee, you just go, you know, find a private spot, point away from us.

So there's all kinds of wildlife out here.

There's for sure bears.

Okay.

For sure bears out here.

Even if you don't see it, they're out there.

Any questions on what I just said?

All right, we have boots.

If you want boots, you can get them.

You're not required to wear boots, but if you want them, we have them for you.

We even have socks if you need them.

Okay.

All right.

I'm going to have Avery help you guys first with the boots and the sweatshirt.

Okay.

So you'll go see him first, and then you're going to come to me.

I'm going to get you a pack, stuff everything in it, and you'll be good to go.

All right.

Cool, guys.

Let's go get started.

It's kind of hard to believe that all this stuff's going to fit in these bags, but we're going to make it happen.

You got a water bottle?

Good.

All right.

So let's get a sleeping bag in for you.

It's a lot of work.

It's a lot of work, regardless.

And trying to do it with an unknown number of participants who have never been backpacking before.

And all that, it makes it an extra challenge, but it's worth it in the end.

The reason I take them out backpacking is that it just shows them a different side of the wilderness.

Different side of nature that they don't necessarily get outdoor rec wise.

Ultimately get them out of the city, get them out and just enjoy nature.

It's going to be pretty unstructured, but just wandering around and enjoying nature is great.

Go find some flowers.

Find some trees, find a good view.

Hang out with your friends.

Ali, how long you known me for now?

Around 6 or 5 years, right?

Something like that.

Yeah.

5 or 6 years?

Yeah.

Like 12 campers per year?

Yeah, 5 years.

Try to help him with things outside of scouting when I can.

Getting a driving permit.

Oh, yeah.

Sometimes figuring out apartments.

All right, let's get this fixed.

So basically we just have to be like really sure we know where we're going.

Hey, where are you guys going?

Guys, hold on a minute.

Wait, wait one minute.

Wait one minute.

Alright guys, Avery is going to get you guys started walking.

I'm going to catch up once we get these cars put away.

Look back, make sure you're not going too fast.

Okay?

You guys stay together as a group.

So there's a mouse right there.

and it doesn't seem to care that we're here, but we're already too close to it, so we definitely don't want to get any closer.

And let's just leave it be.

Looks like it's just eating some leaves.

But these things are dangerous.

Like, they can definitely crush us if they want.

And it can, it can run here like that.

So let's just keep moving along and just leave it be.

But if it does run at us, then you want to get behind a tree as quick as you so it can't crush you.

All right.

Honestly, I don't know if I've ever been that close to a bull moose before.

It's super rare to see a moose, like of all the hundreds and hundreds and thousands, thousands of miles I've hiked.

I've only seen a moose like, 4 or 5, 6 times.

So it's super rare.

And to have a bull moose that close is really rare.

This one looked like a young one.

Yeah, it was all small.

So hey guys, basically what we're going to we're going to get the tents set up right down there where they're at right now.

That's a perfect spot.

I know.

Put on your long sleeve.

Put on your sweatshirt.

Just keeping the mosquitoes off my face and Depesh's face.

[birds chirping] Bear bags.

We used to use them a lot back in the Midwest and stuff because we got big, big trees with big branches that stick out up there, like oaks and stuff.

And it's got to be, at least six feet away from the tree.

All right, so I need you guys to go over there and catch it, because the rope is not long enough for the bag to go all the way to the ground and we got our eggs in there.

All right, it's going to go closer to the tree.

All right.

Good job.

Good job.

All right.

Now you can just keep pulling.

There you go.

Boom!

We got it.

So check this out, man.

I didn't have enough room in any of the other bags for my deodorant and stuff, so I left it out.

And this is knocked over.

This you can see there's there's, like, some sort of claw mark in it.

Yo!

Yeah.

It got ripped right open.

And, my bag with my with my deodorant and my toothpaste.

It's gone.

Completely gone.

[off screen] Better than you man.

They definitely took a bite out of this.

I think it might have been a bear.

I don't know to.

Did they like it?

They didn't like this because this is bug spray.

But they they liked my deodorant and my toothpaste.

Let's head back over here.

Did he bust open the bug spray?

The thing I needed most to survive in this campout.

Not the bug spray.

Not the bug spray!

All right.

Enough.

Enough on the trees, guys.

Yes, sir.

We're going to filter water so that we don't get sick when we dring the lake water.

This is a interesting system because it separates the dirty water where we scoop out of the lake.

I think the one thing, the one misconception about refugees that, that I take issue with is a lot of people think they're illegal.

And refugees are legal individuals who the U.S government says you can come to our country.

Your situation is so bad in the country where you're coming from it you are you are allowed to come here.

[off screen] Do you have any more water?

We're working on it.

You got it.

And then fill up this one and I'll bring the other stuff to fill up.

Yes!

I like it.

So I made these fliers a long time ago, and I had like, I paid to have them translated.

Can you just tell me, like what I put in English here, if it pretty much is the same as what you see here in Arabic?

Like, it doesn't have to be perfect, but I'm just of curious.

Like when you go to read the Arabic, does it actually make sense?

If it's easier you can look at one in English and one in Arabic at the same time.

And so the thing he was just reading it basically says refugee youth, boys and girls ages 11 to 17 can join the Mango House Scouts for free.

We have one troop for girls and one for boys and are part of the Boy Scouts of America.

They also do fun things like swimming, sports, canoeing, archery, rock climbing and playing games.

All of these activities are supervised by experienced adults and all safety precautions are followed.

We go camping once each month, usually from Friday night until Sunday morning.

And then I also have the Scout Law.

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

We are not clean.

I'm not wear my glasses.

Is that Arabic over there?

Arabic?

Yeah.

Can I see?

Yeah, I was asking him.

This is very correct.

It's very correct.

It's good?

Oh.

That's awesome.

I think for me, it comes from dealing with a lot of racism when I was younger, and wanting to help those who are disadvantaged.

Especially immigrants, in any way I can.

And, there's a wide range of immigrants in this country.

He just came from Turkey like last month.

You know the huge earthquakes a few months ago.

He feels shaking.

He thought it was his brother jumping on him, but it wasn't.

[speaking Arabic] Oh, there was people that was, like, really scared.

They were really scared.

They had heart attacks for how scared they were.

They were mostly big people that had heart attacks because they were too scared and they died.

Did you see any of this?

[speaking Arabic] He didn't see, but he could hear because his, like, neighbors houses got destroyed.

And last thing he hears is, like, screams for, like, 10 seconds and then it stops.

[P.J.

off screen] Was he scared?

He knows people, like friends and family that live in Turkey and Syria and they all died.

There were kids and adults that died.

But yeah, that's what happened.

Good job guys, you guys are doing awesome.

Don't put it in all the way, because when we try to take it out I think it was going to be hard.

One of the coolest things that has been happening lately is kids that were in the troop when I first started 7 or 8 years ago.

All the sudden they're back and they're young adults and they're excited about this and they want to help out.

As opposed to something.

That's happened.

They want other young people to have the same good experience in the outdoors that they did.

And that as a concept is scouting.

And I think that's just great.

This is this is really cool is he's paying it forward.

Years ago, Ali's older brother used to help him set up the tent.

And now he's helping the young guys set up the tent.

They were my age when I was his age.

So that's how it went.

Yeah.

[crickets chirping] Amad, one day you goint to be coming here in here by yourself.

So when you make spaghetti, keep moving it.

So when you make spaghetti, keep moving it.

You don't want it stuck on the button.

Happens to me every time.

What people should know about this troop is, a refugee is not inherently the same thing as an immigrant.

A refugee is somebody who threw up their hands and said, anywhere but here.

But let's talk about the about the range.

But let's talk about the about the range.

What are the parts of the range?

Okay, the parts of the range is there's basically three rows.

We can get archery going, like we can get those rules happening, Like we can get Those rules happening.

I can learn as much Arabic along the way to getting a safe archery lesson.

stood up as they can learn English.

You know, the range is hot.

The range is cold.

How is this square in Arabic?

Murabae Murabae.

Just like that?

Nice.

They didn't pick where they are.

They have inherently met the highest standards of needs based resettlement.

They are fleeing war.

They are fleeing ethnic cleansing.

But being kind to these people is in all of our best interests.

The way that we treat these kids is going to affect the kinds of adults that they become.

The challange is our guys have already been kicked out of their home country.

A lot of them have already been kicked out of a school.

We want somewhere where they're not getting kicked out of and they need that.

They need to know that we support them unconditionally.

Both Andish and Mahmud had birthdays in the last in the last day or two and they chose to spend their birthday weekend with us, so that's a big deal.

[Avery off camera] All right.

Who's singing?

3, 2, 1.

[kids singing] Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, dear cali guys.

Happy birthday to you.

[cheering and clapping] Weren't we the same, way back when.

When, people left Europe because of religious reasons, and they came to this country for for a better chance.

16.

Big 16.

Thank you, everybody.

Beautiful cake.

They were escaping something that was, oppressive.

And they just wanted to be free.

And that's what these kids and their parents are doing.

[crickets chirping] [kids speaking in Arabic] I wasn't like, they told me we're going to Utah.

They're saying somewhere far but I never it to be an almost like, to me, that was a whole nother country.

Yeah, yeah.

How old do you have to be to go there?

Older than you.

I was 10.

I was 10 when we went.

Wait 11.

You look so young at the time.

I still remember you bring the fish, bro.

Yep, yep.

We all looked young.

Yeah.

I've been on almost I'm not going to say every single one, but I've been on a lot of camps and I haven't been on one camp that's not fun.

I don't remember going once.

I've been on hard camps that I was wishing to go back home, but I was never on one where it's not fun.

I would tell someone one sentence to join our troop.

One sentence would be, Come live the dream in the outdoors.

The outdoors are amazing.

I mean, if I had the chance to buy a house somewhere in the mountains and live my life and have a farm just like I used to in Syria, have a horse, have goats that I can feed every day and live off their milk.

have goats that I can feed every day and live off their milk.

That would be, that's just another dream I have to accomplish before I die.

[boys chatting and laughing] Wake up.

Wake up.

Time to wake up.

[groaning from tent] Okay.

Wake up.

Start packing up so we can go home.

Yeah, yeah.

Good morning.

Good morning guys.

Did you sleep okay?

Are you cold?

You okay?

All right.

Hey, guys.

Another good camp in the books.

Thank you very much.

You guys did awesome this weekend.

We really appreciate everyone's willingness to help and chip in, you know, and do those dishes even when you don't want to.

So we're going to just do our thorns and roses and then we're going to basically get ready to hit the road.

But basically we just go in a circle.

And the idea is that like a rose, you know, on the flower has the thorn.

So there's a good thing and a bad thing and everything in life.

And so we just say, what was your rose for the weekend?

What was your thorn?

So what was the good thing?

What was the bad thing?

All right.

Ali, you can just go in a circle now.

Okay My rose, was going swimming.

And, my thorn is being in the van.

In the van?

Okay.

My rose was the boat.

The boats and swimming.

Oh, yeah.

And, and like, my thorn was, when we came back our tent was down, but everything was good.

Yeah.

My rose is coming here to your land, going boat, having campfire last night.

And I don't have any thorn.

All right.

Yeah.

No bathroom.

Man, we need the bathroom over here.

[laughing] My rose was swimming.

My tone was.

The water was cold.

My thorn was the water was cold.

My rose was kayaking and my thorn was, like cold at night.

[speaking Arabic] He says the thing he likes is archery with Phil.

And what he didn't like is the music that was playing all the night.

All right, guys, stay here one second.

I remembered one little thing I have to do still.

I'll be right back.

I used to give you guys, like, the badges after you earn them, but most of you guys would come up to me afterwards and say, like, I don't really want this thing.

You can just have the back.

You can just have the back.

And so we stopped giving the badges And so we stopped giving the badges because we don't really, like, wear the uniform with all the badges, he was asking the other day if he had any badges.

So I said, oh, yeah, the paperwork is not always the best for our troop.

So he only had one badge on file So he only had one badge on file at the Boy Scout office, but the kayaking badge.

Congratulations.

There's your kayaking badge.

All right.

All right, I want to, let you guys know about some upcoming campouts.

First, we're going to try to go to this camporee, they call it.

It is like where all the Boy Scout troops from Denver come and camp in the same spot.

So it'll be a little different.

And it's kind of like summer camp rules there.

They're going to have a lot of rules.

It's going to be, probably feel a little different than our normal camps, but we thought it'd be fun to try that this year and see how it is when we pull up to the rest of the troops, you know.

Refugees skills verses.

That's right.

I use camp to get away from my life at home.

This helps me get away from, you know, the street stuff.

There's good out here.

You know, there's, like, there's a lot of people like us.

There's a great food.

So there's a lot of things to explore.

It's good therapy sometimes, but, you know, we all have fun.

up.

Never gets slow.

Remember, take it slow.

Take it slow, slow, slow actually pick up the trash.

Otherwise we're just going to keep doing it.

Kind of go towards where your tents were.

Kind of angle to the right, where your tents were.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is where the table was so there's going to be some here probaly.

Yeah.

When I hear stories about troops, that are serving strictly refugees, like Doctor Parmar's, who is given an opportunity for kids to experience something different from their home country, I'm excited because not for what's happening today, but for what's going to happen 20 years from now when these young people are adults.

Okay, guys.

All right, everyone, gather up.

Let's see how many people we have.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 , 9.... So people that have that vision just inspire me because they don't do it for recognition.

And they don't do it for an award or a badge or something to hang around the neck.

They do it because they truly care.

This weekend we're going camping to kind of a special place.

It's called Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch.

It's an actual Boy Scout camp.

Yeah, you can tell people in Arabic if you have to.

So this camporee, it's like a special one where Boy Scouts from all over the Denver area, they're all going to come.

Can you just quick since a lot of these guys are new, tell them just in Arabic for easy, like how we're going to set up the tents tonight and, just kind of like general rules about cooking and cleaning dishes and things.

That was last time, this time is different.

We're going to do a lot of stuff there, like probably shoot bow and arrow.

There's going to be, some of the kids there are going to shoot guns.

We're not going to do that.

Sorry, guys.

We're not going to do that because, hey, this community, some of you might live here, some of you might not.

A lot of people in this community get hurt, get killed from guns.

So we don't want to be part of that.

Okay.

Let's go ahead and get in the black van.

My leg is stuck!

Go!

Go!

All right.

Hey, guys.

Quick timeout.

Muhammad and Muhammad, Shaque, and Abdu.

We need to, pick out these shirts because today we have to wear Boy Scout shirts.

We had to dig through here and find ones that fit us.

If you can find ones that have the numbers 1532 on the sleeve, those are the best ones because those have our number.

This is a good one.

Might be good for, try this one.

See if that one fits you.

[boys laugning and playing] [food sizzling] You guys think he's going to do a good job cooking the eggs?

Yeah.

All right.

All right.

Fork.

All right.

Who else for eggs?

Yeah.

[boys talking and playing] Is that all right?

Yeah.

All right.

Oh, yeah.

Actually it looks good on you.

Once it's tucked in it's going to be perfect.

[boys talking and playing] Alright guys, let't go, let's go, let's go!

[kids laughing] [soft music begins] [soft music continues] [scouts laughing and cheering] [Justin off camera] Blue team!

Go blue, go blue, go blue!

We need everyone to wear sunscreen.

Okay.

The older guys, if you're like 15 or older, you can decide for yourself.

[scouts talking] [soft music continues] Three, Two, One.

Go.

Most of the troops in our area are predominantly white, and we stand out when we go to scouting events.

People recognize that we are different.

Sometimes we get people who are inquisitive, and that's pretty cool when they come up and they ask us about our troop.

And it's all refugees.

These guys are mostly from Syria.

They're all from the Middle East.

But we also have other guys who didn't come this weekend from Nepal, from Burma, from Africa, from all over.

Yeah, so basically, even though we don't earn badges and we don't have meetings, we don't really wear uniforms, we still try to do all, like, this basic scout skills that you would think of from kind of like the old times.

So like just basic stuff, setting up tents, learning how to be safe with fire.

I'm really glad that we came to this camporee, though, because like, we're meeting a lot of cool people and we came to some years ago, but our troop is just so different a lot of times, just like, something happens, like we're not quiet during flags or like they don't know how to do something that everyone else knows.

And we kind of feel like a fish out of water sometimes, but I'm glad we came this time.

Just pull it.

Take it a little bit this way.

So you pull it all the way to your ear.

More, more, more.

Okay.

That's good.

Aim it and then just let go.

Go.

Great.

You did great.

Going to all of these has probably changed me over the years because I definitely became more responsible.

And in our culture, men don't really cook unless they're like traveling and you're not married and you don't have anyone from family.

Normally the ones responsible for cooking are the ladies.

I learned to cook here.

I'm probably by not the best chef but I can still cook.

Big muscles.

Yeah.

You know what they say about big noses?

Right?

What?

About big noses?

All they say is you can't see in front of you.

I was too big for you to see.

It blocks the view.

You know what they say.

We will let you know what they say.

Wait.

What do they say?

Bigger the nose the bigger the .... Yeah.

You got a mic!

You're mic'd up!

This man.

This man.

You could have said that Arabic.

[van honks] Yeah, Alsa!

[off camera] It's not funny no more!

You just cut it.

Don't worry.

Don't worry what's gonna happen, just cook it.

Just cut it.

I got the rest.

They think I own a restaurant over here.

I opened a restaurant for them.

Each person wants a different kind of meal.

You do this, like that.

And then you hold it the other side.

Like this.

Like that.

Like that.

[light wind] Hey, guys, listen up for a minute, okay?

Listen up.

Hey, a few minutes ago, I know it got windy and the weather got crazy, but, like, everyone disappeared.

And this is a mess over here, okay.

This is a mess.

That's not okay.

All right?

And I'm talking to the older guys.

Mostly because some of you guys I saw was the ones that did it.

And some of you guys should just know better and help the help the little kids.

Okay.

[crickets chirp] Sometimes we interface with other scout groups, but we may not be right up in there with them doing all the same things in the same ways.

Because we come from a different, different approach to this, you know.

The end game is the same.

It's youth development.

It's trying to advance, take someone from where they're at and move them into a little bit more of a mature, position.

There's more than one way up that mountain of maturing, of becoming an adult, becoming a man for these boys.

One thing I try to do in this troop, we try to do in this troop is, provide a sort of bridge between cultures.

This scouting can be a very traditional Americana type of thing.

And these kids are coming from elsewhere, and we're a part of that puzzle of helping them join into this society.

Holy cow.

Looks like there's a squirrel in there with all this sunflower seeds.

Hey, one of the things in Boy Scouts is leave no trace.

That means that we don't disturb the environment we were in.

And so we gotta make sure we pick up any trash that we left behind.

Every time we always line up like this, so we make sure we don't miss any.

So I want everyone to slowly walk and look for trash and stakes.

Okay.

Shaque.

Back, back, back ,back, back, Shaque.

All right.

Slowly, slowly look.

Okay.

It's a requirement of the second rank, which is called tenderfoot, that someone know how to properly raise a flag.

[Justin off screen] Yeah, that looks great.

Looking good.

And when these kids get to raise their Syrian flag right there next to the American flag, it really makes them feel something special.

They feel special because it represents where they're coming from, right next to an image of where they are.

Pride in their origin and where they've come since.

[soft music begins] The American flag is supposed to be higher than the others, but it doesn't say that you can't put up another flag.

You know, scouting has always represented, something around the world.

It started in, England, actually, and it's in almost every country in the world, including it's been a big part of the society in United States.

And for much of that history, it's included new immigrants.

And the basic concept hasn't changed.

It's being welcome to everybody, including those who've been here for a few generations now and those who are new.

Do you know how to fold the American flag properly?

All right.

So there's actually a special way to do it.

All right.

So I'm gonna have you hold that end.

So grab that end.

All right.

And then I'll grab this and you back up just a little bit.

All right.

What do we do first we fold this hand over.

We fold one more time.

It's still pretty normal, right?

And so you're going to triangle.

And then you do like this, okay.

Good.

Very good.

And then the kind of cool thing is at the end all you see is stars.

And you can even tuck this part in here to kind of make it look really fancy.

And it looks almost like a little hat.

There you go.

P.J., Ross mad a bad choice by giving me the camera.

Hi.

I don't think you could see anything right now.

It is very much dark and cold.

But I hope you enjoyed this documentary about the scout troop.

And have a good day or afternoon wherever you live.

Have a good day.