Piñata Making in Mada

In preparation for a malaria festival project I worked on, I undertook the challenge of making a piñata that looked like a mosquito. My lack of artistic skills would have been enough of a challenge, but I didn’t realize what piñata making in Madagascar might entail. I began my piñata a week in advance…just in case. Of course, the first few days it rained 23 hours out of the day, so my drying options were non-existent. I just had to leave it on my floor and hope for the best.  However, every morning I would check on my piñata only to find that the mice in my house had eaten through a layer or two of my hard day’s work. So after spending a few hours re-paper macheing, I had to use my remaining energy to plot how to keep the mice from eating it. My dad, always supportive, wished me luck via phone with a fun fact that mice could fit through a hole the size of a pencil eraser. Thanks Dad! I built a few unsuccessful contraptions, and eventually ended up covering it with numerous buckets full of water. It worked pretty well and kept the mice away from my large, scary looking mosquito piñata. And, karma came back to haunt the mouse. It eventually drowned in the same water bucket I used to keep it from eating my work. Unfortunately, it also had a week to decay before I came home to find it. That was gross.