She drove her car and led the way to a town called "Bird-in-Hand" at Lancaster county, which was about an hour drive away from Reading.
The Lancaster county is famous for the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, where the Amish settlement is located.
The Amish and Mennonites, are a group of people who live secluded life away from the modern society. It is as if the time has come to a standstill for this group of people since the 19th century; they chose to live a very simple lifestyle (due to religion) and resist all modern technologies. They even all dressed in the old way!
At first, when our colleagues here described this group of population to us, we couldn't really imagine it. Then when we saw with our own eyes, we were just amazed at how people could live as such in the current era. I mean, for people like me who would feel uneasy even for just one day without a laptop or Internet connection, i seriously cannot imagine how to live a life like the Amish.
We signed up for a two-hour guided bus tours to the surrounding Amish farmlands. Most of the information on the Amish can be obtained from the Wikipedia or the Web, but i'd record down what i had heard from the tour guide during the bus tour.
(Most pictures below were taken from within the bus, and hence there are reflections on the pictures)
- The Amish that settled in this area now was of Zurich origin.
- The Amish still depend mainly on agriculture for their living.
- The population of the Amish grows very fast because each household has on average 10 children. The available farmland insufficient to cater for the population growth, so normally only one child will inherit the farmland, while the rest of the children will have to think of alternative ways to earn their own livelihood, such as business of handicrafts.
- The Amish teenagers will go through a period of rumspringa, whereby they are given a chance to experience modern life before they get to choose to remain in the Amish community or to leave and live in the modern world. Surprisingly, almost 90% of the teens choose to remain in the Amish society.
- The Amish only study till the 8th grade. Their school is small and does not measure the education by test grades. What they learn in school is to prepare themselves for the world (note that it is the Amish world, not our world), on how to live on their own in future.
- The Amish farmers mostly plant corn and alfalfa, not for human consumption but for the cows. Their main income actually comes from selling the fresh milk of the cows, where the famous chocolate brand Hershey actually gets the milk from.
- Some farmers also plant tobacco, which is a cash crop for them.
- They are not allowed to use electricity for purposes other than life-saving. For instance, if the Amish family requires electricity for a life-support medical device for a sick family member, this is actually allowed.
(If you pay attention to the pictures, all houses do not have electricity going into the houses at all)
- The Amish farmers are not allowed to use tractor for their farming. They use horses or mules to plough the farmlands.
- They commute by buggies pulled by horses. In this area, it is actually very common to see their buggies on the road. However, for any of the people who require cars (due to the distance they need to travel for businesses), they are allowed to hire drivers to chauffeur them, but the cars can only be in black color.
In the tourist center, i saw posters of a movie, the Witness by Harrison Ford, made in 1985. This area was actually made popular due to this movie.
It is against the Amish religion to have pictures taken. Hence we were advised not to shoot photos directly at them, but it's ok to taken from afar. The picture below was taken with three Amish ladies having lunch on a bench (on the right of the picture). I pretended to be taking photo of the building while including them into the picture.
After the end of the tour to the Amish farmland, we were then driven to a winery where we got to taste four types of wine: Quilter's Delight, Harvest Red, Becky's Blush, and Pennsylvania Dutch Spiced Apple.
Before the wine tasting, the person-in-charge actually asked me and the American colleague to show our ID to prove that we are already at the legal age for alcohol consumption. She didn't ask to see my subordinate's. Hmm, i'd presume this means that i looked very young to her!
Anyway, frankly, i wasn't too impressed with any of the wine. Neither was big boss. Hence none of use bought any of the wine.
After the wine tasting, our tour ended. Before we left, the tour guide distributed a newspaper the Amish Country News to each of us.
After the tour, it was already lunch time. We had our lunch at a restaurant near the tourist center. We opted for the all-you-can-eat menu, and we were seated at a long table with the other group of customers and pass around the food that were served to us like during Thanksgiving.
The dishes were similar to the ones we had the day before, such as chicken pot pie, chow-chow, shoofly pie, and also some "normal" dishes such as fried chicken, sausages, mash potato, and salad.
We didn't eat a lot as most of the dishes were very filling. After the lunch, big boss went fishing on his own, while we three girls continued on with our escapade.
Labels: travel
