Take a whack at the rat!

Last night the 20-somethings organized an international food night and a piñata event. The food presented was Mexican (sort of) and Malaysian (closer to reality). Because tortillas cannot be purchased here, Theresa made crepes instead – and because cheese is a rarity, they used American processed cheese, purchased at the Walmart here (yes, Walmart is ubiquitous and everywhere present!) For the sake of expediency, the “cheese” was placed between two “tortillas” and placed in the microwave for a minute or so.

Now the salsa really was authentic, as they were able to find all the necessary ingredients, and it was delicious. There are no corn chips, so the salsa was eaten with potato chips, and of course, it was liberally spread on the “quesadillas.” Actually, it was all pretty tasty!

The Malaysian dish consisted of rice cooked in coconut milk, served with a hot sauce that had little fishies in it, hard boiled egg crumbled up, cucumber slices and salted, roasted peanuts for a garnish. Again, very tasty, although the little fishies were a bit questionable.

When the meal was completed and each child had washed his/her bowl and spoon, it was time for a little free-form play (including Chris whirling smaller kids around in a big disc thingy), very loud chatting, and digestion of food.

The piñata victim was a large pink rat with velvet green ears, googley eyes, and a long blue chenille pipe-cleaner tail to compliment his black pipe cleaner whiskers. The students created him in their arts and craft class. In the photo above, you see a close-up of said victim, held by LiQin.

Since there was nothing on the ceiling to hang the rat from, we suspended him from a stick held up by Guillaume on one end and Chris on the other. I held an end for a while, and was really thankful when Chris finished his turn at whacking and came back to his post.

This little guy turned out to be tougher than you would have imagined. In the initial stages he was whacked at with a rolled-up stick made of cardboard (see Lulu having a go with that weapon). When that didn’t even make a dent after many turns, we switched to the wooden drumsticks that go with the drum-set that sits in the corner of the dining/therapy/party room (see Yuan Yuan using the second weapon).

Many whacks later, the rat was still impervious to all this abuse, and the students started attacking with a vengeance, using banzai yells and extra heft. It reminded me a little of “Lord of the Flies” (kill the pig!). Finally the adult troupes had to be called in and Faguo Papa (French Papa) and Faguo Mama (French Mama) each had several whacks. Finally a dent appeared and then a hole – and it was downhill for Mr. Rat from there on in. In the final explosion, there was a matching explosion of kids who hit the floor scrambling for candy.

My daughter Sophie reminded me that children are usually blind-folded and turned around three times before they are allowed to take a whack. In our situation this was not necessary, needless to say, and in fact we showed the kids where the rat was so they'd have a fighter's chance at doing battle with him.

Following the candy grabbing scene, when the candy was safely in the hands of the nanny (except for that which had been consumed), a dance party ensued, with children ages 7 through 19 bouncing to the music, along with the 20-somethings. This was the time for the 50 and 60-somethings to exit state right and head upstairs where things were considerable quieter. We had reached our party limit.