I watched the second episode of "Amish in the City," a new reality show about a group of young Amish on
rumspringe in LA in front of cameras on a show for UPN. Because I come from a Mennonite background, I have more sympathy with the Amish than with any other people on the show. Mennonites are that group in "Witness" that live across the valley from the Amish, but have phones and cars -- well, most of them do anyway. The fact is, the Amish are only a branch or two up the tree from my own faith. Obviously, I have no qualms about using electricity, but I do share some of the values about being skeptical about technology and about living apart from the world.
The show could have treated the Amish as freaks of culture, but my sense was that the producers wanted to avoid that tone. The show treated the Amish youngsters with a great deal of repect. One of the activities included taking a bus to ride horses. The bus ride was novel for the Amish (as it would be for most kids who grew up in the country, actually). The horses, however, were familar territory.
The second episode started with a big blow out about the non-Amish complaining vociferously that the Amish were slobs and, if they'd contribute to the housecleaning, relations would be much improved. Apparently, one of the Amish girls left her recently used underwear in a common area.
Some of the girls wanted to draw out Randy, one of the Amish men. When he ignored them, several others joined in on picking on him by pointing out his silence. In my view, some Amish young people may not need to be as verbal as other young people. One young Amish man, Joshua, I think, bemoaned the fact that he stopped his education at eighth grade. He said that he would further his education if he left the Amish. The young woman talking to him let him know about his options to get a GED (because he had some misconceptions about it). That moment touched my emotions. Quiet Randy later impressed the most verbal resident when he laughed and smiled and interacted with some developmentally disabled people at house outing. As the guy put it, Randy showed his heart. Randy, in an interview, said he felt comfortable helping others and he clearly looked the most comfortable when he could be acting in service of others.
It is hard not to have sympathy for sincere, friendly people who seem new to a culture and the impulse of the others in the house has turned mildly toward educating the others: "Talk more" and "Get an education so you can get work" "Learn the distinguish the names of musical genres from mucisians/musical groups so we won't snicker at you when you don't know the difference." The Amish so far have taken these coaching and barbs in good stride because they seem so excited about getting off the farm.
Some of the Amish young people have traces of a Pennsylvania Dutch accent. Many Amish speak it as form of low German and Mose, particularly has a slight German accent. Most of the other Amish young people don't have an accent on their words, but they do create phrases and emphasize words differently than I am accustomed to hearing.
I would not say that the Amish and non-Amish are charming each other yet, but the potential is there. Maybe next week, we'll find out that the Amish are complaining because no one else is doing their laundry. The show surpised me with the mundane things that come into its focus. These moments bring out the differences between the Amish and the non-Amish and I find myself charmed at times.
