A Trip To Punjabi Village

Prior to the start of camp, the Gills took us staff people out for an evening at Punjabi Village, a themed restaurant complex about an hour from school. Here you can experience Punjabi life and traditions as wonderfully replicated in large figures inhabiting a traditional village. Besides the fiberglass mannequins, there are real people doing a variety of things like make popcorn, tell fortunes, spin clay, do puppet shows, play traditional games, perform magic, dance and sing, tell stories with performing monkeys, and so much more. If one didn’t step out of Punjabi Village onto a busy thoroughfare in the Punjab, one would think they were in the Epcot Center. But this my friends, is the real deal.
We had such a good time with the Gills that we decided to bring the YES students here to absorb some local culture. One night toward the end of camp, after all our hard work, we piled in to our favorite school bus for the 45 minute ride to Punjabi Village. The kids really enjoyed the full Punjabi experience. They looked at all the exhibits, watched the dance show, rode the camel back and forth across the village, and shopped at the little stores selling souvenirs. Our Afghans love to shop and any moment they have to spend money, they are happy. We try to curb the shopping because it gets a little crazy at times, but when they are good and it is convenient, we let them shop for small things.
The dinner is included in the price of admission so after awhile we went into the fancy dining hall for the all-veg dinner. Afghans can be picky about trying new foods and we prepped them into trying everything. Indians are not big on wasting food and when they see full or half full plates of food from Afghan students, they get upset. We’ve been working on that with them little by little and here was another opportunity to open their minds and get them to taste something new. Try a little bit of everything and ask for more if you like it—that’s the rule. Eating only bread is not OK (that’s the other rule). So with this in mind, dinner was served. It’s a thali, which means a big platter with small bowls of various veggie dishes in a semi circle. The fresh nan and chappati are constantly brought around by the waiters in jackets and long skirts. After almost a month in India, most students had no problem with the food and even asked for seconds on some things. A few did pick at their food but at least sampled everything and finished some of the dishes. For those that cleared their plates, the award was a free camel ride, compliments of Tom. This was a bit of motivation for finishing their meals. A camel ride didn’t convince everyone to finish their plates but we had a few that took up the challenge.
Post-dinner as the plate cleaners rode the camel, the others did some more shopping and watched the fantastic Punjabi song and dance show. The hardest part about watching the show is that you can’t get up and dance. A difficult task when the lively Punjabi music makes you want to shake your shoulders and start dancing. Somehow we resisted. When all the camel rides were over, all the money spent on souvenirs and the show had a break, we headed back to our big yellow bus for the ride back home. Happily the students sang and clapped all the way back to camp. Another cultural experience for them to remember.