MacDonalds

This morning I went to MacDonalds for the first time in Georgia, and it was actually quite a pleasant experience. Up on the third floor, there was a special birthday party room, and I was one of the guests. The birthday boy, Gabri, was turning two and he had a number of little cutie friends there to celebrate with him. Gabri's father is Avtandil, a man who works in the Patriarchate, and with whom Luarsab and I have often sung chants.

When I arrived, two staff members were just starting a puppet show in Georgian. The puppets were the MacDonalds characters, and I wish I could have understood the language because I actually don't know any of these characters except MacDonald himself. There was a masked bad guy, and a couple muppets, and a purple squidhead, and a floppy carrot-head. The kids were pretty into it, including Luarsab's little Elene. Gabri wasn't very interested in the puppets actually but kept trying to peak around the backside of the mini puppet theater to see who was doing all the talking. Smart two year old.

The puppet show was complete with an American soundtrack, compliments of the staff person with the stereo remote. She had the volume really high and everytime the music went on, all of us parents jumped two feet. After the puppet show there was Karaoke to bad Georgian pop music for the kids, followed by happy meals, cake, and coffee for the parents. Lots of balloons, and some attempted dancing. One little blond munchkin had recently learned to walk, and spent the whole morning staggering around from chair to wall to random calf. So adorable. Gabri was intent on collecting all the balloons for himself, but tiny Elene put up a fight for her balloon.

Next, all the kids went over to the playroom and took turns coming down the twisty slide. Great fun to do it over and over again. Finally, there was a catwalk modeling run, with little Georgian girls wearing MacDonalds scarfs, and MacDonalds crowns. They waltzed into the room one by one, saw all the parents staring at them, and turned right around and headed out. A couple of the older girls understood the concept, and gave a little toss of the hair at their turn. A two year old girl came in and simply stared at me until the staffer came in and took her hand to lead her out.

The party ended with a big mess-making: plates on the floor, static balloons stuck to all surfaces, HappyMeal toys being pulled apart, some kids crying, some squealing... anything that was available to throw on the floor was being properly arranged in the Mess by two little squirrelheads...

MacDonalds is a kids Jerusalem here. Bright colors, play toys, puppet theater, and modeling. Concept.

Are we still children, or is it gone forever?