Saying Goodbye to Laurel

So Laurel and Klorissa are off to Ecuador. On March 10 we gave them a hearty send off. The Resabalas were so sweet to give us a history of their former country. They gave some great advice and we loved their flan!
It's hard to say goodbye, but we love Laurel and wish her the best on this new adventure. Here is her first email home. Maybe some of you will follow in her footsteps someday!

Hey Everyone,

So I pretty much freaking love it here..Its so crazy like I
don´t even know
how to describe it...Its constantly crazy, and people are
everywhere..driving is like so scary there is basically no
rules and
everyone honks..I thought NYC was crazy but since coming
here NYC is
nothing.. I am kinda missing home though..I wish I could
bring like everyone
from NY and have them here that would be awesome..I think
my Spanish is
improving, still not amazing but hopfully I will get
there...It´s so hard
talking to the workers and kids when you don´t know
Spanish, so I am doing
my best to work on it...

I worked my first two shifts today and it was crazy...My
first shift was at
the baby orphanage and all the kids there are anywhere from
newborn to 2 and
they are broken up into 3 different ages.. Sala 1 is
newborn to 6 months
Sala 2 is 6 mont hs to a year and Sala 3 is 1 year to 2
year.. So I was
assigned to Sala 3 with one other volunteer, and we have
like 13 kids its
crazy..so we get there and start brushing their teeth, then
take their
pajamas off and then the other volunteer Andrew starts
bathing them and I
was dressing them, and like one kid took his diaper off
while he was waiting
in his crib and he had crap all over the place, and then
one of the little
girls took her diaper off and peed all over her crib, so
that was pretty
dang nasty..so it took like an hour and a half to get them
all done, then we
took=2 0them upstairs and played with them, then we
ventured outside..and
they were playing and then all of a sudden one of the
little girls was
sitting in this ditch and part of it is cement and she
kinda fell back and
banged her head so she started crying so I went and picked
her up and was
trying to comfort her and then I moved my hand and it was
covered in
blood..I was like CRAP!!! So I am like yelling to Andrew
and he´s like what
I was like BLOOD!!! and it was so bad so he rushed her
inside and then we he
brought her back out it was like this tiny cut on her head,
but I felt soo
bad.. So they just played for the rest of the time outside
and we didn´t
have anymore accidents then we had to go through some more
orientation
stuff, and then feed the kids, and they kinda like force
feed the kids and
its this stuff called La Sopa..and its mad gross sm elling,
not sure what it
tastes like but sometimes it can be really hard to feed the
kids and in the
beginning I was doing really good with this one little
girl, but then I
guess she just wanted to play so I got more Sopa on me then
she probably
ate, then we changed diapers and put some down for a nap
and we came home..I
was like flipping exhausted...We were there for like five
hours and it was
just constant craziness.. Then we got to go home and have
lunch which by the
way its pretty much flipping awesome.. Then some of us went
and layed
outside in the sun cause it was pretty dang hot.. so20that
was fun, then I
went to my second shift and its at another place and its a
couple apartments
made up of ¨families¨ it was crazy the kids were so wild,
so we didn´t get
much accomplished there but we only stay there for like 2
hours so it wasn´t
bad.. and now I am finally back for the night and I luckily
don´t have a
night shift tonight...so thats been my first day..

Hope everyone is doing well, and hope to hear from you
all..I promise to do
my best writting back it may take me a few days but I will
get back to
you...Miss everyone...

Love
Laurel