Future Supermodels of Bulgaria

WOW! Again, so impressed with the children from Chiprovtsi. The big kick off show for Chiprovtsi Party Weekend (my name for the series of activities hosted here this weekend) was Friday night. Singers, marching bands, dance troupes, and other talented young Bulgarians from the region performed in the Culture Center’s large concert hall. I missed the other performances—except for the very enthusiastic baton twirlers who I feared might let a loose one fly my way while I was trying to find a spot in the packed theater to photograph my kids—I was busy helping the Chiprovtsi kids get ready. They didn’t sing or dance, they modeled.

Last Sunday, I received a call from one of my colleagues telling me to be at the Culture Center at 5. My understanding was that there was someone there to discuss tourism development with me. I was wrong. Instead, there was a Bulgarian supermodel, originally from Chiprovtsi, who wanted to volunteer by hosting a sort of day camp for the kids while visiting her hometown. I was thoroughly confused how my tourism meeting had turned into me helping corral 30 kids while she instructed them on how to walk a runway. Her plan to have the children, ages 6-11(-ish), make outfits out of recyclable materials (junk from home) and model them in a mini-fashion show during the Friday performances didn’t become entirely clear to me until mid-week. Even then, I wasn’t too sure how this would be pulled off.

My skepticism was furthered by the lack of willingness the kids initially displayed to walk/pose in front of others. If they were too self-conscious to walk across a room, empty except for their peers, wearing their regular clothes, how would they possible model a ridiculous outfit in front of hundreds of people? To me, this sounded like a scenario that could go very bad. Where we going to encourage children, who are already shy about being singled out individually, on a large stage alone in front of family, classmates, and strangers? But, the kids were having a good time and are fun to be around, so I went along with the plan, besides, it how many people would actually be there anyways?

For the rest of the week, I went to the big classroom in the Culture Center after work and language lessons, to help sew jar covers on old dresses, make vests out of milk cartons, and repeatedly assure the girls their outfits were going to look lovely. Since I wasn’t there all day every day, I didn’t really see how it was coming together. It wasn’t until a few hours before the show on Friday that I even saw the kids do a run-through to music. Amazing. They weren’t anything like the kids that stared at the ground while walking across a classroom five days prior. These kids strutted and swaggered across the large stage with plenty of attitude, posing as if adoring fans and hungry paparazzi were waiting just for them (the auditorium held only a handful of marching band early arrivals from Montana, a few moms that were helping with the show, the sound guy, and me).

Hard at work...hanging out during practice, sewing dresses, painting finger nails. I never thought I could be so tired after painting nails, or that I would be doing so in my role as a Peace Corps volunteer...

Still, I thought, it looked like there were going to be A LOT of people. Not just from town. Several buses had arrived with what looked to me like serious performers. When I’d left the day before, the outfits were haphazardly being parsed together, most seemed unfinished and ridiculous…not something even cute 6 year olds could get away with. It was one thing to be confident on stage, but how would they look following a fancy dance group? BUT, we still had 4 hours before going on stage. Tedi took expert control, herding the kids into a large room with a table full of makeup, hair styling tools, and nail polish. While I applied makeup, nail polish, and hair spray, she brought the kids into an adjacent room in groups of two and threes to finalize each of their outfits. They emerged from the assembly line fantastic. They knew it too.

On stage they walked with their heads up, shoulders back, eyes on the crowd. True professionals. Bravo Tedi! These kids, that had been so scared of being in the spotlight 5 days ago, were now confidently displaying their individuality in front of a huge crowd. They received the loudest claps and were easy favorites out of all of the performances. I’m so impressed by them and grateful to have such great kids in my town!

Last minute instructions.

The group walk. Encore.