Prisila Castillo

Prisila Castillo, 9

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):

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Prisila with her little sister Diana

Prisila receiving shoes from Education Plus at Christmas

Prisila receiving shoes from Education Plus at Christmas

 

 

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Prisila gives some love to our volunteer Lisanne

 

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Prisila with her family

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

Prisila with one of the family chickens

Prisila with one of the family chickens

 

 

 

 

 

 

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the sky is the limit!

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

 

 

 

 


Andi Garcia

Andy Munos Garcia, 7

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

 

Andy PG

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

Andi and his little brother Brian

Andi and his little brother Brian

Andi paints volunteer's face :)

Andi paints volunteer’s face 🙂

 

 


Adriana Munos Garcia

Adriana Munos Garcia, 10

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

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


Jose Luis

Jose Lopez, 8

Jose Lo

Short story about Jose Luis, October 2013, by Dissa Ahdanisa

Dissa and Jose Luis

Dissa and Jose Luis

It was sunny and hot in Pantanal, and the kids were having their English class with Francis, the beloved teacher. Like other volunteers, I was helping some of the kids finishing their exercise. We went to some tables to sit down and help them if they have some questions. We were doing numbers in English. Professor Francis wrote down some number and the kids had to write it in English. Some kids did know what they were doing, so they came to us to confirm their answers, which mostly were correct. However, some weren’t that fortunate. They didn’t know how to say the numbers in English, let alone write them down. And José Lopez was one of them.

This cute 8 year old boy can write well and understand the what he needed to do to finish the exercise. He can spell 1-10 in english, he can say 100, 200 and other big numbers, but when we mix it, e.g 432 or 215, he gets confused. Instead of writing “two hundred fifteen”, he wrote “twenty one five”. So to finish his exercise, I tried to explain (with my broken spanish, of course) to him what to write and how to say “215”.

There were 10 questions and although it was a bit slow, we managed to finish all. He looked very happy and I was too! Not only because I get to help him finish, but also because I get to learn how to say these numbers in Spanish, win win indeed! 😉

Anyway, what I didnt expect was at the end of the class, he came to me and gave me a folded paper. He didn’t say anything and left straight away after I took the paper. I read it and this is what he wrote:

Jose Luis's love letter to Dissa

Jose Luis’s love letter to Dissa

Te mando esta carta y este corazon
(I send you this letter and this heart)

Te amo Dissa mucho mas
(I love you Dissa so much)

Jose y Dissa
(Jose and Dissa)

Te mando esta carta porque te quiero mucho mas.
(I sent you this letter because I love you very much)

Te amo mucho mas y te mando esta estrellas.
(I love you very much and I send you these stars)

Te amo mucho
(I love you so much)

Guess what? It’s a love letter! Yay! Hahaha I got my first love letter from José :). He drew a heart, lots of stars, and our name in every available space.  He is such a sweetheart and his letter made my day. I didn’t know why our simple tutoring session can make him write this cute letter..

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Jose Luis playing with Legos on activity day

Hearts Jose Luis drew for Dissa

Hearts Jose Luis drew for Dissa

 

 

 

 

 


Diana Castillo

Diana Castillo, 3

Diana Castillo, 3

Name: Diana Adeliah Castillo

Birthday: November 2010

Grade: Preschool

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

Favorite school subject: playing

Likes to do for fun: play with the volunteers, eat, dance bachata (or at least what she calls bachata!)

What she wants to be in the future: undecided

Where she would like to travel if she could travel anywhere in the world: Germany, to visit Anja (former volunteer)

What would she wish for if he could have one wish: that Anja would come back to Nicaragua

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

Actually the story isn’t really about a child of the Education Plus Program, but for me it is. It’s about Diana. Diana isn’t a student, but she is the youngest girl of the Pantanal family. So she’s living in the house where the school is. By the time I was in Granada, she was just starting to talk a little more. And being only two years old she was so cute. Her normal day was perfect when there was enough food and action. She was always running around or watching the class. And after two or three weeks, she knew and trusted me. I think I was the first volunteer who really had a friendship with this cute little girl. So every time I came to the school in the morning, she ran outside the house to say Anja, Anja, Anja – over and over. Even though she didn’t know the names of any of the other volunteers, she knew mine, and every morning she would ask her mother if I was coming to see her. At the school, she always wanted me to pick her up and carry her around. Even if I was busy I couldn’t say no to her – never. And then there was the day when she got a new haircut, made by her mum. She looked so funny with this short hair, maybe like a boy? Well the important thing about the haircut story is, that the family, some other children and especially Monica started to call her “pelon” (baldy)– poor Diana! When I was still in Granada, I was like: “how can they call this cute little girl (my best friend in Pantanal!) pelon”??? But back here in Germany it is actually so cute that I started thinking of her as “my pelon”! She just is my “pelon” and I will never forget her. She is reason enough for going back to Pantanal! See you next summer my pelon!

We Love you Anja, especially Pelon!!!!

Anja and "pelon"

Anja and “pelon”

Diana cleaning the front porch of the school

Diana cleaning the front porch of the school

Diana, during Christmas 2012 art project

Diana, during Christmas 2012 art project

"Pelon", with her little boy's haircut

“Pelon”, with her little boy’s haircut

 

 

 


Luis Navarro

Luis Navarro, 12

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

IMG_339518 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.”

We are so proud of Leonie and Luis, and look forward to updating you on his progress over the coming years!
Update : March 2014
Luis is now reading by himself and will often jump into other children’s reading classes to help out and show off his skills.
Leonie and Luis reading together

Leonie and Luis reading together

Luis studying hard at Edu+ with his fellow "Tigers"

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