Amish in the City, Episode 4: Programming on the Fly

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the show dedicated to making Rumspringa a household word. The gang has been together for about a month now, and the talk turns to how much everyone misses their families and the normal lives they’ve left behind. Whitney and Nick share their longings to see friends, and Nick himself is at the point where he’s even missing the annoyances of his old hometown. “This neighborhood is too quiet,” he says. “We need some dysfunctional families around here!” If he misses dysfunctional family situations that badly, perhaps he should just leave some dirty dishes and clothes lying around and blame it on the Amish kids. Dirty underwear on the floor certainly created some noise last week! Ruth and Jonas are discussing whether or not to even return back home to their families. Ruth confesses that she’s thought about just moving out to L.A. permanently. “I don’t care what anybody says,” Jonas says. “The easiest thing is to just float along with the current and stay Amish. It’s hard to leave.” He feels that if he isn’t going back, he needs to be working hard to achieve things in his life. Ruth agrees and, much to his surprise, she tells him that she recently got her GED, and begins to tell him what her plans are. Jonas, having discovered that he isn’t the only Amish person with dreams of higher education, interrupts her before she can even get started. “Was it hard?” he asks her. Ruth admits that she had to study a lot for the test, but she was really proud that she passed.

Meagan has taken Miriam and Mose out for a stroll around downtown, and they stop for coffee at a local caffeinery. Mose has a difficult time even choosing a flavor (“What’s white chocolate?”), let alone a blend. “Up until that moment,” he tells us, “I was under the impression there were only three kinds of coffee – Folger’s coffee, the other one I can’t even remember, and the third one I for sure can’t remember!” He opts for a white chocolate blend, since he’s never tried it before. I imagine within a couple of weeks we’ll start seeing the new ad campaign with slogans like, “Folger’s, the only coffee worth remembering,” and “Folger’s Crystals – don’t start Rumspringa without it!”

As I watched the first episodes of this program, I got the impression that the producers were watching the events in the house and planning the guests activities around whatever what they observed in the various conversations and arguments. At that time, I dismissed it because I know that a lot of meticulous planning goes into the making of even an “unscripted” reality show, and everything is plotted out well in advance. A show such as The Amazing Race, for example, has an entire team of people working behind the scenes, setting up the locations and permits for the various things the contestants will be doing in each country they visit. My initial hunch was correct, and the team that put together Amish in the City deserves an award for not only thinking quickly on their feet, but also for finding ways to use their resources to provide the most positive experience possible for the house guests.

Some T-mail arrives through the pneumatic tube system, and it turns out to be a note for Jonas. He is instructed to go to the front door where a package is waiting for him. He tears open the door to find some books and a note, which Mose reads for the group. “You have asked about being able to take your GED test,” Mose tells Jonas. “Please use these materials to help you prepare.” The books – study guides for those seeking a GED – are worth their weight in gold for young Jonas. With an ear-to-ear grin, he tells everyone, “I’ve got some work to do!” I’m often asked why I write articles about reality shows when many people consider them to be the worst dreck on television. Moments like this are the reason. A young man who was prepared to spend his entire life wondering what he might have been if he had the right tools at his disposal now has his chance. How cool is that? This is a prize far more valuable than any money he might have won by eating bugs or outwitting and outlasting his tribal mates in some far flung location. Bravo!

From previous clips, we’ve already learned that the Amish educate their children through the eighth grade, but that additional schooling is not usually an option. In an interview, Mose explains the reasoning behind it. “An Amish person working to acquire more knowledge is very strongly discouraged,” he tells us, “because the Amish need their kids to be at home on the farm helping.” Jonas is both excited and a bit frightened about this because he’s been out of school for over six years, and he’s a long way from being in “study mode.”

As Jonas studies that evening, the others are chatting on the patio. Ariel talks about once having a job at a local dance club. A young man walked in with a gun and opened fire on the people dancing inside, shooting one person in the head and hitting several others. This inspires Whitney to tell everyone about her boyfriend of four years who had recently been shot and killed on the streets of South Central. I honestly don’t know which is more tragic, the fact that these events occurred, or that we’ve become so acclimatized to gun violence in America that such stories don’t even make their way into the news anymore. Indeed, beyond expressing sympathy for Whitney, the city kids barely react to this news. For the Amish however, these stories have the effect of a nuclear detonation. With fear still fresh in her eyes, Miriam tells us, “It kinda freaked me out that people just come up and shoot somebody.” In the understatement of the month, Whitney tells us, “I think the Amish kids would be amazed to see where I come from because it’s obviously nothing like where they come from.”