I forget how the majority of the world stays in one place, never having the chance to venture outside of the state or province they grew up in. I am the first Canadian many people here have ever met. How unfortunate that I am a chameleon as I don’t sound a bit like a Canadian at the moment. I sound more like someone who grew up in a city around here. Hopefully there won’t be a whole new set of stereo-types formed about Canadians because of me.
One of the biggest stereo-types I had to break down was the idea that Africa is a country; everyone is the same and they are all backward. This is an idea I come across all over the place, including in popular media. I once saw a sign advertising an evening with Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian commander in charge of operations during the Rwandan genocide. They said he would be speaking about the country of Africa. Yikes! That is like talking about the country of Asia (which doesn’t exist). I think the ignorance regarding the continent of Africa comes from news media and movies that always refer to Africa rather than the individual countries of which they are reporting on. I have become more aware of making generalizations regarding ‘Africa’, instead referring to the particular country I am speaking about.
I am much more of a believer in cultural exchanges now than I ever was before seeing how many stereo-types we all carry around with us and how wrong so many of them are. In particular I have learned a lot more about the Amish, a group of which I have been particularly curious for quite some time. This is not a generalization of all Amish, but these are my observations of the settlement we were privileged to learn from.
-~900 homes in the settlement interspersed with non-Amish farms/homes.
-The settlement has about 13 schools up to grade 8. Most kids only go to school up to grade 8 and very few go on to public high school.
-Some kids go to public school but not if they can help it.
-Farming is all mechanized for the most part; they regularly apply chemicals and a fertilizer, milking is done in a parlour and the homes are as big and modern as any other.
-The major exception to modernity is that they do not use electricity from the state. They do use hydraulic equipment, generators, propane, battery power, etc. They do not accept any state subsidies. This must come from the strong commitment to a separation of church/state.
-Farming is not necessarily practiced in a sustainable way except that they use horse power. Horses are to the Amish as manioc is to the Central African. We did meet some growers trying no-till farming and another that is doing organic vegetable production. It is a hard road and I hope they succeed.
-They speak a wonderful blend of English and Low German and they have the thickest Indiana accents around.
-The do not have churches but meet in homes, up to 45 people at a time. They are kind, gentle and their children learn German first and English second so it was difficult to speak with the smaller children.
-Culturally they will run into difficulty as far as land is concerned. With so many children it is becoming harder to divide land amongst the kids. One family we met with has 42 acres, passed down from his grandfather and at least 4 boys to divide land amongst. This has led to a push towards vegetable production as you can produce more on a smaller acreage. It is also resulting in a lot more off farm jobs. We met several young Amish women working in the general store. Land is generally expensive or unavailable and the future of farming looks in jeopardy.
I met many kindred spirits here and if I have the privilege to return I will count myself doubly spoiled.
