Girl Scouts of Santa Clara County

 

TRIP EVALUATION

(Submit one copy to Council office, one to your Service Unit Manager, and keep one)

 

Troop  321     SU _8_ Program Level  Cad/Sr       # of Girls _22_ # of Adults _18_ # of Others ____ (Please specify)

Trip Destination            Costa Rica              ____                                 Dates of Trip     6/25/01 – 7/7/01                 

1.      Was the purpose of the trip accomplished?  How were your goals met?

Yes, the trip was a wonderful variety of experiences:

Cultural exchanges: We delivered school supplies and computers to rural schools, which included a dance program put on by the school and a question and answer exchange between the groups.  We spent a night (in groups of 4) with farm families.  We met with local Girl Guides and exchanged swaps and songs.

Adventure activities: River rafting, horseback riding, zip line through the rainforest canopy.

Nature activities:  Lots of walking in the rainforest, looking at birds and animals.  We visited a butterfly reserve and a sloth recovery center.  We stayed at a nature preserve on the Caribbean coast that included walking the beach at night to find turtles laying eggs and then moving the eggs to a location safe from poachers. 

 

Some of the girls are now talking about pursuing environmental studies as majors in college or expanding troop service activities to gather supplies to help support the turtle reserve.

 

2.  How is the troop planning to use the experiences gained in future plans and outings?

   Plans for sharing with others?

·        We are preparing a video as a keepsake for each participant and will prepare a short “public” version to show to other troops.  We will show this at individual troop meetings and at the Service Unit’s Junior Lock-in. 

·        We are going to prepare a consolidated “Travel Lessons Learned” from our past trips to use as a handout for future trips.

·        We have prepared a Council’s Own Interest Patch, “Adventures Abroad,” which we will submit for Council approval.  It covers a lot of the things we learned about traveling to a foreign country.

 

3.  Please attach a financial report of your trip, providing information on the cost of transportation, food, lodging and program, and how these expenses were covered.

Were there adequate funds to cover expenses?

Since we used guides, we do not have a breakdown of transportation, food, lodging and program.

Expense

Per Person

Group Total

Eco-Teach Guides

$1880

$75,200

Shirts

$100

$4,000

Canopy Tour

$35

$1,400

Tips

$50

$2,000

Miscellaneous

(insurance, dog tags, luggage tags, copies, video, etc.)

$115

$4,600

TOTAL

$2,180

$87,200

 

If there were excess funds; what was done with these funds?

Excess funds will be used for the video.

 

4.      Girls’ evaluation:  List the highlights of the trip and the three things the girls learned from this experience.

  • Turtles
  • Zip line
  • Sloth recovery center
  • Rafting
  • Disco/Costa Rican people
  • Birds and animals
  • School visit
  • Home stay

Things girls learned:

  • A positive attitude is important. 
  • Different lifestyles are just different, not worse. 
  • “Poor” families’ lives are simpler, but they are happy and kind and have more time together.  All the “things” we are used to having are not necessary for a happy life.
  • Some things we take for granted have adverse environmental impacts, e.g., bananas.
  • Individuals’ behaviors that are tolerable in small doses become really annoying over a 2-week period.  Examples: negative comments, flirtatious behavior, self-inflicted meltdowns due to dehydration and not eating.

 

5.      Adult evaluation:  Describe the major tasks carried out by the adults before and during the trip.

Adult tasks before the trip included making the reservations and deposits and ordering shirts after the girls decided what to do.  Adults worked with Eco-Teach to make sure the guidelines in Safetywise were followed for the various activities and that we covered the requirements for the “All About Birds” and “Wildlife” Interest Patches. During the trip the adults supervised the girls and facilitated discussions when a girl’s behavior caused problems for the group.

 

6.      What would you have changed to improve this trip?

  • Emphasize personal responsibility for physical well-being.  We had some issues with dehydration and not eating.  In the future, we will stress that each person has to take responsibility to ensure that they plan appropriately (e.g., carry snacks if they are prone to meltdown without food) and take care of themselves so that they do not impact the functioning of the group.  We will establish clearer guidelines about how much water they should be drinking (some people’s definition of “a lot” is not really very much.
  • Bring a wider variety of bug bite treatments.

 

7.  What words of wisdom would you want to share with a troop planning a trip with same or similar destination as yours?

  • Hire guides and drivers.  Having Eco-Teach for our guides (http://www.ecoteach.org/) enabled us to experience much more of the country than we could have on our own.  We especially wouldn’t have seen the wildlife without guides pointing it out to us.  The Eco-Teach company had connections that made it possible to do the home stays with farm families, visit rural schools, get into the Bribri indigenous area (which we didn’t do because the rivers were too high), and much more. We would strongly recommend that visitors also hire drivers because the roads are not great and are poorly marked.
  • Take non-cotton clothes and towels.  The humidity makes it impossible for cotton clothes to dry.  Our Coolmax t-shirts were great.  The Tencel tanks didn’t work for every body size/shape.  Our Pack-towls were great.
  • Although you can use American dollars almost everywhere, exchange a little money into colones upon arrival.
  • Prepare journals ahead of time with the itinerary and little facts in them.  (We do this for all our trips.)
  • Pack light.
  • Bring small denominations of dollars (nothing larger than $20)
  • Put insect repellent on – don’t wait until it’s too late.
  • Disposable cameras are OK for rafting, but the quality isn’t as good for everyday use.
  • Use trash compactor bags as a liner for luggage because it will be on the roof of the bus.
  • Bring a Polaroid camera to give photos to kids.  Bring other little gifts for kids.
  • Be flexible when rain, roads, or whatever causes your plans to change.
  • Don’t be afraid to get wet and dirty.
  • Check out the insect repellent that you can wash into your clothes ahead of time.