Prisila Castillo, 9

Name: Perla Prisila Ramirez Castillo

Birthday: 27 October 2004

Grade: 3rd

Home life: Prisila lives in a tiny one room wood home with her mother and two sisters (Diana and Gabriela). She shares a bed with Gabi and her mother.

Favorite school subject: English, Language and Literature

Likes to do for fun: Prisila loves to dance and study

What she wants to be in the future: A dance teacher

Where she would like to travel if she could travel anywhere in the world: New York, to visit her godmother

Her favorite things in the world: To study and her family

Short story about Prisila, October 2013, by former volunteer Anja

Who actually is this girl with the famous name? Prisila is the oldest daughter of Yami and Diana‘s sister. Everyone who doesn’t know Diana should have a look at Diana Castillo‘s page 😉

At 9 years old Prisila is already a very charming personality. She’s really mature for her age and a good and attentive English student. To keep it short: she is so friendly, so open-hearted, so helpful, so adorable and beautiful. She will win a lot of men’s hearts.

There was one time especially in Pantanal when Prisila showed me how generous she is. One morning, before she had class, she wanted me to make “tiste” with her, a national drink of Nicaragua. Tiste is made out of cornstarch, cocoa powder, sugar, water and ice cubes. I tried it once before and I didn’t really like it as it was very sweet, like all the Nica drinks – way too sweet for Germans. But I helped Prisila with preparing the drink. I think she was really proud that she could show me everything. And when it was finished, she offered me to try the tiste first. I was really touched by her offer as for Prisila tiste was something special, she couldn’t drink every day. So while I wasn’t too thrilled by the idea of drinking it, but I was really excited that Prisila wanted me to try first. I tried the first sip of our tiste and I still didn’t like it :-D. Nevertheless I was happy that I did as it made Prisila very happy which was more than worthwhile.

You showed me that people living in poor circumstance have often the biggest hearts. Thank you Prisila.

Watch a video of Prisila speaking English (this was taken when she was 8 – she is way better now even):

Prisila with her little sister Diana

Prisila receiving shoes from Education Plus at Christmas

Prisila gives some love to our volunteer Lisanne

Prisila with her family

Prisila walks arm in arm with her little sister Gabriela… and a box

Prisila with one of the family chickens

the sky is the limit!

Using an old headboard as a teeter totter with her cousin Chepe

Andi Munos Garcia, 7

Name: Andi Munos Garcia

Birthday: 9 February 2006

Grade: 3

Home life: Andi lives in a two room home with his mother, father, two older sisters (inlcuding Adriana) and little brother

Favorite school subject: Science

Favorite food: Chicken

Likes to do for fun: Play

What he wants to be in the future: Police Man

Where he would like to travel if he could travel anywhere in the world: Masaya

The thing he loves the most in his life: His mother

The one thing he would change in his life if he could: His father

Andi with his two sisters, brother, and mother, who sells food in the market

Andi and his little brother Brian

Andi paints volunteer’s face 🙂

Adriana Munos Garcia, 10

Name: Adriana de los Angeles Munos Garcia

Birthday: 30 January 2003

Grade: 4

Home life: Adriana lives in a two room home with her mother, father, older sister and two little brothers (including Andi)

Favorite school subject: Math

Favorite singer: Selena

Likes to do for fun: watch tv, cook, dance and study

What she wants to be in the future: Doctor

Where she would like to travel if she could travel anywhere in the world: Germany

What is the most important thing in the world to her: to be able to work

Adriana, at the window of her home with her two little brothers, Brian and Andi

Luis Navarro, 12

Name: Luis Alfredo Navarro

Birthday: 27 June 2001

Grade: 2

Home life: Luis lives in a one room home with his 5 siblings (including Esperanza, Wanda, and Estiven) and grandmother

Favorite school subject: Math

Likes to do for fun: play soccer

What he wants to be in the future: a police man

Where he would like to travel if he could travel anywhere in the world: USA

What would he wish for if he could have one wish: to have a good job

Short Story about Luis: November 2013

18 year old German volunteer Leonie Hohnholz runs a literacy program with volunteer Inga Plum in tangent with our regular English program. Leonie and Inga are working hard so that no child is forgotten – at Education Plus, we believe that every child, not just the top performers, has equal potential and deserves an equal amount of attention.

One of Leonie’s students is a 12 year old boy named Luis.  Luis lives with his grandmother and 5 siblings in a one room home without floors, windows, or a functioning door.  His mother disappeared five years ago during a work trip to Costa Rica, after which his father abandoned the family.  His grandmother, toLuis’s embarrassment, constantly refers to him as slow in front of the other children. However, he has had several impediments to learning which are not his fault. Luis is behind other children his age because was taken out of school for a few years in order to harvest coffee to support his siblings.  His cousins give him a hard time about studying to read instead of playing with them in the streets because it’s just not cool.  But Luis, with the support of Leonie, has surprised us all!  Leonie tells us:

“Yesterday I was working with Luis and, because he didn’t show up for reading class for a long time, I thought we would have to repeat again, but we actually made a very big progress. When we first started he didn’t even know letters. But he actually remembered this time and after an hour of working with him, at the end he could actually start to read! We started with syllables and then we finished he was reading real words. I was so happy about it and he was very happy too! When I told him that he really made progress he was very proud, and you could see it on his face. The next day I told him I wanted to take a picture of him reading and put it on the internet to show everyone because I was so proud of his progress, and he was so happy! You could really see it in his smile.”

Leonie and Luis reading together

Luis studying hard at Edu+ with his fellow “Tigers”