Week Four

I began to notice more strange things after the first few weeks. I didn't notice sooner because it took so much of my attention to keep ahead in all the subjects because of lingering language shortcomings on my part, especially in the sciences. I enjoyed seeing their different historical perspectives, but a series of little events woke me from my naïve blindness. I had noticed a pattern a few weeks. Actually I noticed several patterns that didn't fit in with my experiences with schools in the US. I figured some of these things were because it was a residential school and that all of the girls had jobs. However, I couldn't figure out why two or three nights a week, several of the girls wore dresses and high heels to the cafeteria while the other girls were in their jeans or shorts and gym shoes. These dressed-up girls stood by a table that was at least a foot higher than the other dining room tables. They didn't sit down. Usually I left right after dinner because the girls were starting to clean up, and I wanted to go finish grading papers or reading a book or even going for a long walk. Whenever I stayed in the cafeteria longer, I saw that one of the adults or visitors would escort one or two of these dressed-up girls out of the cafeteria and back towards the guest area in the rear of the girl's dormitory.

Also, once or twice a week, a large, black car would pull up to the school. Uri always bent over backwards to welcome these visitors. Usually it was two well-dressed but rough looking characters, and a smiling but stern, attractive, younger woman. Sometimes other men were with them. The headmaster would come into my room with the woman and without introducing her they would take two or three of the girls out of the classroom with them.

One night I asked Uri who they were and he explained that they were from a group that provided most of the funds to keep the program going - the food, books, heat, clothing, everything that it took to keep the school and orphanage going.

I asked him why they always took one or more of my students with them for several hours at a time. He said it was part of the "charm lessons," a program the orphanage was involved in to help the girls get adopted sooner. The woman always brought them back to my room all cleaned up and dressed up - high heels, short, dressy dress, make-up, jewelry, etc. Uri said they provided haircuts and even some clothing, and taught the girls more city manners. I didn't know what he meant and wondered what was really going on. He said that the school received very generous contributions from their group and that I should just accept certain things, because those things kept the whole program afloat. He also said again that this beauty training helps get some of the girls adopted sooner.

I gave him a questioning look, so he explained farther, "They get the girls all fixed up and take pictures, and its easier to find places for them if people can see really nice pictures of the girls, "...because they are very cute, aren't they?"

"Yes. Most of the girls here seem cute." I had noticed it before but had never wondered why. There were no homely girls here. I thought it was just the Eastern European genes or something, but it was more than that.

When I asked him about the girls who wore high heels and dresses to dinner, he said the same thing - that it was part of their "charm school" training, and they had to learn to talk with different men and women. He said that was also why they wanted the girls to learn English. "So they can talk to different men or women who might visit us to see about adoption."

I went along with his explanations, but it seemed fishy to me.

Week Five

The sponsors would take the girls, or sometimes just one girl, out of my class in the morning and they would be gone for four or five hours. When the girls came back to my classroom later, they had different clothes on, fancy hair styles, and were wearing make-up. They seemed happy - even proud - of their new-found 'charm,' so I didn't question the 'charm school' reasoning, at least not at first.

Uri warned me when I asked him about it the third time, that they were generous supporters of our orphanage school and that sometimes I must mind my own business and just go along with their customs. He implied that if I wouldn't go along with things, they would transfer me to another location. He said, "You don't want to see the whole place shut down, do you?"

"No." It really was a safety net that kept many kids from starvation or who knows what. "I'll help you however I can. Is there anything I can do?"

He looked at me, but didn't say anything. He nodded and walked back towards his office.

Each of the girls who were chosen to go to the charm school for four hours in the middle of the day seemed both excited and nervous ... but not afraid. That gave me the sense that whatever was going on must be OK. I suspected that the girls who lived in the dormitory would share everything with each other so that if there was anything to fear, they would be reluctant - instead of excited - about leaving the classroom. When the girls came back, I could smell them coming into the classroom. They were uncharacteristically giddy and full of giggles and smiles. They pantomimed being movie stars with exaggerated smiles and poses. Their faces had on make up, and they had ribbons in their fancied-up hair. After their first trip, Uri stopped in my classroom when the girls arrived back at school, and he told each of them how pretty she looked. So I took his lead and gave each of them compliments, too.

Some of the prettiest girls had gone to a charm school session several times. I noticed a slight change in their behavior towards me - a twenty four year old male at that time. One of the eleven year old girls who had gone to 'charm school' several times began to display a sexually teasing behavior towards me that wasn't there before she started the beauty program. However, she was cute and disarming, and just reaching puberty so I thought maybe she was becoming aware of her feminine charms - something natural that happens all over the world.

The school enrollment was constantly changing, as is the nature of orphanages all over the world, I guess, but I noticed that the prettiest charm school girls seemed to get adopted or transferred to Moscow, Prague, or some other large city more frequently than the other girls. But sometimes they would come back to us after being gone just a week or two. There were usually about 65 students - all female - most between the ages of nine and sixteen. I had written to my Mother after I started teaching there, and she had sent me a box of 100 T-shirts of various sizes - each with a rock star silk screened on the front. The girls loved them.