MKS Adventures: August 2017

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm not good at staying in one place for too long. I've had the international travel bug since my first big trip abroad in tenth grade, and always want to explore new countries and new places. Thanks to my work at Bridge, I get to go to some pretty incredible locations - many of which I likely never would have visited in any other way - and work with intelligent, driven people to solve big problems related to educational access and equity.

Liberia is probably the most challenging place I've ever been, and has some of the biggest educational problems I've seen in nearly 40 countries of travel. In 2016, I headed to Liberia to help launch our first 25 Partnership Schools for Liberia, and spent most of the time in the capital of Monrovia and the northern half of the country, where all of our schools were located. It was a challenging place, but I had no idea what southeastern Liberia had in store.

By the time I left on August 1, I had been in the US for 230 days straight - my longest run for a very long time. Honestly, I was not super excited about the trip, my trip to Liberia the year before had been DIFFICULT, but I was glad to be going somewhere and getting to dive back into good work.

Liberia is NOT an easy place to get to from the US, though it has gotten marginally easier since then. I had a ridiculous flight path. I left DC and flew to JFK, where I waited around for a few hours before a layover in Amsterdam and a runway stopover in Freetown, Sierra Leone before touching down in Monrovia. Shockingly, if you book your flight less than 48 hours in advance, your options are limited, hahah.

While sitting in a freeeezing JFK airport, I was killing some time online and happened to see that two friends from Korea, Frank and Melissa, were in the same airport. After a few messages we realized that we were actually directly across from each other in the same terminal, so I walked over to say hi. Peak expat life is definitely running into friends from Korea in the NYC airport while you're on your way to Liberia for work and they are mid-move to Pakistan to live and teach. So random.

Quick hellos in the airport!

I have a deep and abiding bitterness towards KLM, and this trip only reinforced it. I was stuck in middle, bulkhead seats without working entertainment and I was NOT THRILLED. The Schipol Airport has a dearth of working outlets, so I ended up taking a several hour angry nap before boarding for the Africa leg. I finally arrived in Monrovia after 30+ hours of uninterrupted travel, where I was welcomed by a driver and torrential downpours. This shouldn't be surprising - according to The Economist, Monrovia is the wettest capital in the world, averaging more than 182 inches of rain per year!

It took over an hour to make the dark, rainy, 60 mile trip that deposited me at our office/residence the middle of the night. All I wanted was a shower so I could crash comfortably...alas I arrived to a pitch black building where we had no electricity and no running water. Charming. This is why you always pack your headlamp on TOP of your luggage. I had five hours before I had to be up for our trip to the southeast, an overland journey that I had been told could take up to 36 hours to make. Let's start by talking a little about the geography and infrastructure of Liberia.

"Major" cities of Liberia. (Source)

Liberia has a total population of about 4.7 million people spread across a land mass about the size of the US state of Ohio. Roughly 30% of the entire population of the country lives in the capital, Monrovia, and much of the country is vast, uninhabited (or barely inhabited) tracts of forest and commercial farms (mostly rubber and palm). While all of our schools from the first year were located in the north, our new schools would be waaaaaay down south in Harper, the largest city in the southeast with a population of less than 18,000 people. So...not big, haha.

As the crow flies, Harper is 250 miles (just over 400km) from Monrovia. This is just short of the distance between Washington, DC and New York City, a trip that generally takes about four hours to drive. However, Liberia has some of the least developed road systems in the world, making the trip juuuuust a touch longer. There are two ways to get to Harper.

Option 1: You fly.
There is a tiny airport in Monrovia proper, Spriggs Payne, where charter and commercial flights (in helicopters and small planes) make the trip to Southeast. There is basically one commercial operator, MAF, which mainly serves humanitarian and educational organizations. They fly only 3 round-trip flights each week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) with a plane that only seats 12. Yes, you read that right. 12. Tickets are about $250 per person. If these flights are full, you have to take Option 2.

Option 2: You drive.
Easy four hour trip, right? Not so much. There are really only two routes to the south: inland and coastal. There are drivers that you hire (along with their 4-wheel drive trucks) who will transport you and your goods through the mud down either road. During rainy season, both routes take at least two days.

Initially, our company attempted to purchase plane tickets, but they were already sold out. We also needed to transport a significant number of training supplies to our southern basecamp, so the decision was made to drive. After talking to a few drivers who had recently made the trip, it was decided that we would take the inland route, driving through Gbarnga and spending the night in Zwedru before getting to Harper the next day.

Might want to check your drive times, Google Maps.

I woke up early to prep for our 6:00am departure...which didn't actually end up departing until more like 8:30am or 9:00am. It took a VERY long time to load up all the gear, and there were a lot of disagreements about how it was being done and whether or not the driver and his company had actually agreed to take as much stuff as we wanted to transport and blah blah blah. Everything had to be wrapped up in tarps since we were (shocker) expecting significant rain on the trip.

Our car was packed to the brim...and beyond...with supplies and people. Our Deputy Country Director (Joe) sat up front, while our Ops Director (Bill), Academics Director (Josh), and I squished into the back seat. It was tight (and not like early 2000s slang tight). There was also another car that carried fewer supplies but more people, including members of the Academics team like Sean and the training facilitators. They hit the road before us since we were still working on getting the supplies packed.

How many reams of paper is TOO MANY reams of paper on the roof?

Off to a sleepy start, lol.

My view for....ever.

Right off the bat it was raining. Didn't exactly bode well, haha. We drove through a lot of flooding in Monrovia, but made decent time out to Gbarnga. We stopped to grab some food and water, and exchange money and we were back on the road. Unfortunately, Gbarnga is basically where the asphalt stops, and we had hours to go before we slept.

A little light flooding...

Hello Gbarnga!

All our supplies, wrapped up tight during our lunch break.

Siiiiiiigh, there goes the pavement.

We were making decent time and I made the fatal mistake of thinking "this isn't THAT bad..." when we hit our biggest backup of the inland trip. About an hour outside Gbarnga we started seeing a back up. Rows and rows of 18 wheelers were parked along the side of the road, waiting, along with a lot of trucks and transport cars. Our driver weaseled us up to near the front of the line so we could see what was going on, and we found a huge mud pit, where trucks were stuck in the mud - three across - up to their axles. Things certainly didn't look promising.

Groups of young men, covered in mud, set up shop at each of these pits. They charge travelers to push their cars, trucks, motorbikes, etc through the pits...but they were no match for how deeply stuck these three trucks were. They blocked the entire width of the road. Several smaller 4-wheel drive trucks tried to pull the semis out, but to no avail. Finally, after about an hour and a half of waiting, a large truck on the opposite side was able to pull one of the 16-wheelers out and it was a mad scramble for everyone to get back in their cars and try to dash through the mud first. We spun and slipped around a bit, but eventually made it through and back on the road.

Uh oh..

Welllll this doesn't look great.

You can see just how deep the mud was here...and just how STUCK the trucks were.

Thankfully we were at the front of the line!

And then we were back on the road towards Zwedru. Along the way we hit several other big pits and patches of mud (sometimes up to the windows of our Land Cruiser!) and crossed some highly suspicious bridges. All the while bumping over rough road and smashing into the walls of the car. Super fun.

Yeahhh that looks sturdy....

Hullo little rainbow!

Oh good, more mud.

About an hour outside of Zwedru, while we were in the middle of the Liberian bush in the pitch black, our car started to struggle. And then it stopped. Awesome. Turns out our fuel pump got damaged at some point on the rough roads, and it took a little over an hour to fix it. Would have been an excellent start to a horror movie (a running theme on this trip, to be honest). Eventually, by the light of head lamps, the driver was able to get the fuel pump working enough for us to limp into Zwedru. We got to our hotel and tried (unsuccessfully) to order to order some food. We had been on the road 14 hours (covering only about 280 miles) and were totally exhausted. I booted up my computer, answered some emails, charged my computer, and collapsed into bed.

Casual roadside maintenance.

Head lamps save the day again.

There was nothing but jungle for miles. Not creepy at all.

Five-star accommodations in Zwedru. Couldn't have been happier to see a bed.

We woke up reasonably early to prepare for our second day on the road, and the last roughly 185 miles to Harper. We heard the roads ahead were an improvement, and kept our fingers crossed for no rain. The morning started a little late as our driver evaluated mudpit-related damage from the day before and had a mechanic come out to repair the fuel pump more fully. We strolled down to a little shop in Zwedru where we had coffee and tea with condensed milk and egg sandwiches on fresh little rolls. It wasn't a bad start to the morning, to be honest. Then we fueled up and hit the road again. After our 14-hour first day, the entire left side of my body was bruised and my Fitbit thought I had walked 37,588 steps, hahahah. I had high hopes that day 2 would be smoother, and honestly it was. Although the paved roads only extend for a mile or so outside of Zwedru, the mud wasn't as terrible on the second leg and thanks to our driver going TERRIFYINGLY fast, we were able to make it to Harper, including a stop in a town called Pleebo, in about seven hours.

Morning views from my guesthouse room.

Breakfast in Zwedru.

Tying up for day 2. Can you tell we hit some mud?

We also managed to put a giant dent in the car and smash out a tail light while fishtailing through a mud pit so deep it came up nearly to the windows. Casual.

Back on mud, but this time it is a LITTLE drier.

Hello Pleebo! Biggest town we had seen since Gbarnga.

Downtown Pleebo.

My first taste of fried fish with attieke. Attieke looks like couscous, but is actually made of cassava. And it is TASTY.

Our training site, William V. S. Tubman University, was located just down the road from Pleebo, so after grabbing some food and stopping at a school site to check on some interviews that were being conducted, we headed to the site. The university was on break, so the campus was pretty empty, and really quite beautiful. We used one of the classroom/admin buildings for training, and stayed in staff quarters across the campus. I shared a room with one of our trainers and one of the HR staff members, though I feel like I was barely ever in the room.

The next few days were spent getting things in order for the trainees to arrive on Sunday. I had left DC on Tuesday and traveled almost constantly until Friday evening to get to Harper. How's that for a trek? The site was great, and so was the staff who came down with us. Two of my trainees from last year, Jonathan and Lovetta (who spent the first year as a principal and teacher, respectively) were brought back as trainers, along with some other rockstar staff. They made training so much better. I was so impressed with their drive and humor and dedication....it was incredible to see how much they had grown over the previous year.

Heading towards our rooms on the training site.
(Josh and Sean aren't holding hands, but every damn time I see this picture I think they are and it brings me joy.)

Staff quarters.

View from our classroom across campus.

The tropical views from the classroom and admin building.

Looking towards the main entrance to our building.

When it wasn't actively raining, the sunsets were pretty. However, it was usually actively raining.

The campus.

Fun mural on the side of one of the campus buildings.

On Sunday, our first trainees arrived. They continued to arrive for several days after that due to some confusion and difficulty getting in contact with people since cell networks are so shoddy and unpredictable. This, obviously, presented some logistical challenges (with a limited number of trainers and a limited number of days before school starts, it is hard to stagger classes and make sure everyone is getting everything they need). However, after a few days, we were into the swing of things. Trainees were learning and practicing, trainers were getting better and better...it was going surprisingly smoothly.

Lining up and ready to go!

Registration ran surprisingly smoothly, thanks to our People Operations Director, Charlene.

Principal trainees!

Jonathan, our experienced Principal turned trainer, taking the lead.

There were 43 new schools, so we had a lot of principals to train!

But they were in good hands!

James, one of our school management staff, leading a session.

A brief glimpse of sun!

Welcome to the Bridge PSL Training Institute!

Principals learning from Daniel, another school management staff member.

Teachers running drills.

Practice makes perfect.

Teachers get to practice each new skill with their small group.

And become comfortable with the e-readers.

Not a bad view for a training drill!

Trainees practicing after hours.

And late into the night.

The site was super lush.

And very pretty on the days when it was actually sunny.

Down right tropical.

While I was in the classroom with the principal trainees some of the time, most of the time I was more than comfortable letting Jonathan run with it because I was confident he was doing a great job. Much of my time was spent on more logistical matters to make sure we were prepared to staff, open, and operate 43 new schools in extremely challenging conditions. Generally, this meant pouring over Excel spreadsheets with Josh for - not exaggerating - sometimes up to 20 hours per day. It was exhausting but fun. One brain puzzle after another on decreasing amounts of sleep, haha. And when you have people like Josh and Sean to bounce problem (and solution) ideas off of, things move quickly. And god I love the pace of launch.

Bill and Josh working with a Principal to sketch out his school so that we could compare it to survey data and determine how many desks (and therefore how many students) could fit in each room.

Our messy-with-a-method-to-our-madness workspace.

Twin day with these dorks.

Staff meeting with Charlene.

The logistics planning never stops when you are responsible for training and placing several hundred staff.

This crew made things run SO MUCH SMOOTHER than last year.

Post-bariatric surgery sized Liberian meals.

Hot dogs on starch on starch on starch.

Teensiest tiniest little bag of peanuts ever.

Next trend in exterior decorating: Palm tree street lamps.
Though please notice that the cord doesn't go into anything so it doesn't actually produce light....

Twee little wild pineapple.

One weekend, after several weeks sequestered on the training site and working non-stop, a group of us took advantage of the sunny weather to walk down to Harper proper. The walk down a dusty road took maybe a half hour, and it was great to get off campus and stretch our legs. Harper, Liberia is without doubt one of the strangest places I've ever been. The hometown of a former president, it used to have stately, seaside mansions and huge, ornate masonic temple.

The American Colonization Society, was originally formed in 1816 to "repatriate" former slaves and free born African Americans to Africa. The ACS began their settlement in Monrovia, with African Americans from a variety of states. Several states also had independent societies for African Americans from their specific state, including Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and Maryland. Initially, the colonization efforts of each of these states were considered independent nations, including Maryland-in-Africa/ Republic of Maryland, which was an independent country from 1834-1857. According to William Freehling, by 1839, about 50% of blacks in northern Maryland were free, while only about 25% of them were free in southern Maryland. Baltimore was the largest city in the south at that point, and roughly 75% of the black population there was freed. A book by John Latrobe states that "in December 1831, the Maryland state legislature in the United States appropriated US$10,000 for 26 years to transport 10,000 free blacks and ex-slaves, and 400 Caribbean slaves from the United States and the Caribbean islands, respectively, to Africa." And so the Colonization Society of Maryland was formed.

Even when the other state societies joined the Commonwealth of Liberia in 1838 and declared independence from the American Colonization Society in 1847, the Republic of Maryland remained independent. The Americo-Liberians set up a society in Africa that mimicked what they had seen in the United States. They became the politically and economically dominant group, building large southern-style mansions and setting up social structures that placed them in a superior position to the native Liberian tribes. There was a great deal of animosity between the Americo-Liberians and the indigenous Liberians; in fact, attacks from local tribal groups were one of the reasons why the Republic of Maryland was eventually annexed by Liberia in 1857. It became Maryland County, and its capitol, Harper, was a major hub of Americo-Liberian society.

At least in part because Harper was viewed as a seat of Americo-Liberian power, there was extreme violence in this area during the civil war in the 80s and 90s. According to data collected by PeacebuildingData.org (an incredible, heart-breaking, fascinating resource), 76% of respondents in Maryland County reported being displaced by the war, 67% witnessed someone being beat or tortured, and 71% reported losing a family member to violence. Because of this violence, and a healthy dose of superstition in the south, many of the once-stunning mansions have been abandoned. Left to ruin, many are slowly being reclaimed by the trees....it is crazy and spooky and a little unsettling.

It is also incredibly beautiful. The city is on a cape that juts out into the Atlantic just above Cote d'Ivoire and there are beautiful beaches and palm trees all over. It is a fascinating place to explore. Our group - a motley crew of 3 Americans, a Brit, a Pakistani summer intern, and our Liberian country director - walked around for a bit taking in the sights and enjoying being off the training site before settling in at Sea Rock for drinks, dinner (gigantic and delicious pan fried fish, attieke, coleslaw, chips, the best fried plantains I've ever had - all for $7) and conversation. By the end of dinner we were joined by 4 other Liberian staff as well, sparking a deep discussion about Liberian history and patriotism. As the music played and the waves crashed, I definitely had one of those moments where you just want to take a mental snapshot of what every one of your senses is experiencing so you can tuck it away for later. It was a good night.

The walk to Harper.

Giant, abandoned Masonic temple. Casual.

Panorama of the temple surroundings.

Nope, not spooky at all, why do you ask?

So strange.

Looking back down towards Harper.

This school was in the Baltimore section of Maryland County...felt right at home!

Abandoned buildings.

More ghost town looks.

Slowly being consumed.

Peeking at the ocean.

Most of the houses don't even have squatters in them.

The former presidential palace of President William V. S. Tubman is now filled with squatters, though.

The hook of the cape.

Our new office, where I would later spend a lot of time.

View from the terrace of an abandoned house.

Palm trees and crashing waves for days.

Taking time to look up.

Our exploration crew: Me, Bill, Ben, Josh, Joe, and Sara

One more view of the temple, looking towards town.

Busy downtown Harper...

I couldn't get over this house. Imagine what it looked like in its heyday.

Sea Rock became our go-to spot in Harper. Most amazing fried plantains and huge chunks of fresh fish.

View from Sea Rock.

Dinner and discussion with this background - 10/10.

A few weeks after it began, training finally wrapped up and we had a lovely graduation ceremony full of presentations/skits and speeches from trainees and local politicians. Everyone was so excited and proud, it was a lovely day.

Cheesing with Sean and Jonathan at graduation.

Graduation speeches.

The next day, after all of the trainees headed home to prepare for the new school year, Bill, Josh, Sean and I headed back to Harper to take advantage of an absolutely stunning day. Harper is no less strange in the sun, but it is more glorious.

Walking into Harper, more abandoned houses.

I love the colors of this.

Girls' education for the win!

Amazing old cemetery overlooking the water.

Public health art.

Old grave stones.

Harper Demonstration School is one of the schools we partnered with to train their teachers, provide curriculum, and help with operations.

This school was gigantic and had two shifts, with three different sub-schools operating out of it.

View from Harper Demonstration.

Assembly stand built by the local PTA, including the name of the Principal we trained.

Learn today and serve tomorrow.

Churches in town.

More jungle encroachment.

Beautiful old cathedral in Harper.

Sunday scene.

How much better is the Sea Rock view when it is sunny??

Pro-tip: If someone offers you two little cartons of terrible tasting sangria from Cote d'Ivoire, know you will regret it. Uuuugh, scarred.

What a crew for a day of windswept relaxation. We EARNED this.

Before I knew it, it was time to head back to Monrovia. I was set to fly out Tuesday (after three weeks in country) and I managed to get on the Monday flight back to the capital. The tiny little plane didn't fly very high, so you got incredible views of the countryside on the way back. The flight takes about an hour and a half, and was WELL WORTH THE MONEY, haha. The plane is so small that one of the 12 seats is actually the co-pilot seat...its basically like riding a van in the sky.

Airport waiting room, hahaha.

Plane from Monrovia coming in to drop off their passengers and pick us up.

Me, Tarloe, Joe, and Sean, ready to fly on this toy plane.

I was in the very last row and this was my seat. See, basically a van.

Runway is a strong word.

The cape on take off!

The red-roofed building on the right is the Masonic temple from above!

Goodbye Maryland County!

Arriving back in Monrovia.

As I mentioned, Monrovia is significantly more populated.

The plane had surprisingly big windows for its diminutive size.

Getting ready to land.

Back in the capital.

Tuesday rolled around and I was packed an ready to go...until the country director talked me into staying an additional three weeks, casually doubling the original length of my trip. The downside to doing pre-launch training is that I rarely get to see my Principals and Academy Managers put what they've learned into action. But this time I got to stick around through the first week and a half of classes and see the magic happen, which was very exciting. We had about a week and a half before school started, so we used that time in Monrovia to get other work done and make sure that things were organized both for launch in the south and re-opening and second year operations at our schools in the north. In our (miiiinimal) downtime, we had a few adventures around Monrovia.

The first was a lunchtime adventure with Sean that was meant to be a quick trip to a store and ended up being a combination trek, scavenger hunt, and history lesson. My mom collects Girl Scout and Girl Guide uniforms - both historic ones from the US and ones I bring her back from trips abroad. Before going to Liberia I looked up the address for the Girl Guide office there, and was excited to see it was only a few blocks from our office. Sean agreed to accompany me on a quick trip over to the office to pick up a uniform or two. Except of course not.

We walked over to where the Liberian Girl Guide office was meant to be (pretty vague directions, and like much of Africa Monrovia doesn't have addresses per se, more general directions about location), but couldn't find it. We looked around for a while before stopping to ask someone working at a security booth, who didn't know what Girl Guides or Scouts were. We pulled up the website and showed them the logo, and with a vague sense of recognition they motioned down the street.

We went down the street and couldn't find anything, so we stopped by a kiosk selling fruit and other snacks on the side of the road. One person's face lit up with recognition and they told us to follow them. Pretty soon we were following them off the main roads and being led into what looked like a deserted alleyway that cut behind houses. I was about to call it off - again, I've seen a lot of horror movies - but I figured I was with Sean and probably wouldn't be murdered. I mean, with our combined years of Scouting I figured we could handle...a lot? I don't know, haha.

Finally we round a corner and there is a little old man walking down the street who is motioned over by the person we've been following. He greets us with a big, nearly toothless smile and huge hug. It was the sweetest. We explained that we were looking for the Girl Guide office/store and he said there really wasn't a store, but he could take us to a place where we could get uniforms. He was a 69 year old former Boy Scout who had then served as the chief of police in Monrovia for many years. He was a scout leader, who organized both Boy Scout and Girl Guide troops in the area because he believed so deeply in the mission and values. In fact, he said that he felt that the things he learned in Boy Scouting not only led to his success in work, but also survival during the civil war. We learned about his family and generally just had a very interesting and informative conversation with him.

He explained that there wasn't a central office or store, but that we could find a Girl Guide leader at one of the local schools and they could help us get our hands on a uniform. Sounds reasonable....but did not turn out to be that easy. In all, our adventure lasted 2.5 hours, during which time we covered about 2 miles of twisting alleyways and busy streets and stopped at 3 different schools. After a lot of unsuccessful attempts, we ended up at a lovely school where we met two very active Girl Guide leaders (and one of their star troop members) who shared stories and photos - and a promise to get me some uniforms for my mom's collection. No one can say that scouting won't take you places, haha.

Off we go!

A collection of photos from different Guide events.

The two fearless leaders!

They even sent me home with some photos for my mom's collection.

Plaque celebrating south-south partnerships in Guiding.

Me, the two leaders, Sean, a Liberian Girl Guide who had recently come to the US for a world jamboree, and our guide.

These lovely women explained that you really had to have uniforms made, you couldn't purchase them pre-made. They offered to have some made, and Sean offered to bring them back to the States. What awesome humans! I offered to pay and they refused, saying they were just excited to share more about Liberian Girl Guides with people in the US. Eventually, Sean picked up two uniforms from them, and brought them to Boston. I happened to be in town at the same time, so I took them from him...and promptly forgot them in the Boston office. Josh, who was leaving later that week, brought them back to DC for me and I got to give them to my mom as a birthday gift. What a trek those uniforms had to get to her! (In 2018, my mom hosted her bi-annual Girl Scout/Girl Guide Fashion Show and the Liberian uniforms made their debut!)

While Monrovia can't complete with Nairobi's food scene (come at me, expats) we did have some fun dining adventures in the city. After weeks of training food, it was nice to have some variety!

One things Liberian bars and restaurants have on Nairobi ones is a VIEW.

Oh, also they sometimes randomly have DOMESTICATED DEER THE SIZE OF DOGS THAT HANG OUT THERE.

Like...what tho?

Be horrified by both its glowing eyes and the mustache Josh shaved to bother me.

Liberia also has great seafood.

I was pumped to be in Monrovia when a bar was screening the Game of Thrones finale, complete with special drinks and a $5 buffet dinner. (Sadly, I still lost in my GoT Fantasy Pool. Weep.)

GoT on the big screen!

Friends are people who come with you to a viewing party even though they've never seen the show and aren't interested, haha. They ate the buffet and worked through the finale.

There was a good turn out to Lila Brown's to close out the season.

Other essential self-care? Pedicure at The Royal. Worth every relaxing penny.

While I was at training, I talked to Lovetta, one of our Liberian trainers, about how I wanted to get some clothes made. However, I didn't think I'd have time to do it. Being THE BEST, she worked with local teachers to get some lapa fabrics for me to choose my favorites and called a tailor who came to the training site to talk patterns and take my measurements. I spent about a half an hour with the tailor, who did not speak a ton of English. I described, I thought in clear detail what I wanted. All I wanted was an a-line, full length circle skirt that could be wrapped, tied, and adjusted. I was thinking of a beautiful skirt Kara had bought the year before, and I even showed him a picture. I had to leave Harper before he was finished, so he sent the completed outfit back with Josh who returned to Monrovia a few days after me.

Here's what I got: 2 outfits, each only about 2% what I asked for, haha. The first was a full on Liberian outfit (below), complete with a fitted shirt and tulip skirt that I specifically said I did not want because I will neeeever wear it. Fail. The second was a baby-doll style dress with a tiny, shiny black top and a huge pleated skirt. So close, yet so far. I also did not realize how much I would look like a Maryland flag in this fabric...but that's not something I am mad about (#marylandpride4ever #bestflag). Ah well, in all (fabric and labor) it only cost me like $25 so I can take the hit, haha.