Top-rated
Sat, Jul 24, 2010
The Amish are an American religious community who eschew modern gadgetry for a nineteenth-century life style. Five of their number take part in an experiment for television. Becky,19, Leah,22, and her 18-year old brother Andrew, Leon who's 18 and 23-year old Jerry come to Britain to spend a week in turn with host families who have children their own age group. First visit is to a South London estate with its host black family. The reported violence is alien to the visitors' peaceful life style and they attend a memorial for a youth killed in a gang fight. They can relate to the choral singing at the hosts' church and visit a mosque,where they show that,despite their youth,they are non-judgmental and can appreciate that there are other religions.
Top-rated
Sat, Jul 31, 2010
For their second week in Britain the Amish visitors stay with a middle-class family in Kent. The boys in the family are members of the group and some of the Amish play instruments,facilitating a jam session. The three Amish boys take to the relaxed life style. Two of them are on 'Rumspringa', a kind of gap year, allowing for more sociable behaviour and Jerry, Leon and Andrew smoke and drink and go swimming with their hosts. Becky, whilst still wearing the long traditional Amish dress, goes paddling. Later their hosts take them to a pop festival where their band is playing. Becky would like to dance and consults the Bible for advice. She is pleased to find that the Bible allows her to dance and she joins in with her new friends.
Top-rated
Sat, Aug 7, 2010
The five Amish youngsters move to Scotland to stay with a wealthy family, in a castle, with a hunting lodge. The life style is such that they have only read about. The family then takes them to their other house in Northamptonshire where the sons show the very willing Amish boys how to play polo. Despite the gap in life styles the host families have been chosen carefully so that they do not judge their guests and indeed strike up immediate friendships with them. The Amish are also liberal and anxious to learn from what they see though they are taken aback by a visit to a fee-paying school attended by one of the English boys where education costs twenty five thousand pounds a term.
Top-rated
Sat, Aug 14, 2010
For their last week in Britain the quintet stay with surfers in Cornwall. The three boys are of course keen to learn how to surf - none of the five had seen the sea before,coming from inland communities - but, surprisingly, so is Becky. Whilst the boys are allowed to strip, the sight of a girl in a figure-hugging wet-suit is, according to the Amish, likely to arouse lustful thoughts in men, so Becky, after a phone call home, dons a floppy T-shirt over her wet-suit to ride the surf. She and Leah also accompany one of the girls, who is getting married, to a bridal shop and put on wedding dresses - something that, at home, would be made, very simply, not shop-bought. The month over, they return to America and discuss their impressions of British life. They have loved the experience though it will never diminish their religious faith. Surprisingly the outward going Leon and Jerry now feel readier to be baptized as Amish, effectively closeting them in their community, whilst the two girls are prepared to see more of life outside their village. One thing is clear. They may be products of their upbringing but their perception and willingness to try new things marks them as anything but square.