BRISTOL, Va. – In Egypt, they are life savers. Here, in America, the two men are community college students perfecting their trade.
On Friday, Said Mohamed, an emergency medical services technician from Cairo, and Rady Ahmed, a nurse from Giza, were guests of the Bristol Virginia Fire Department. There, they hoped to learn the American way of rescue.
They had plenty of questions. The only trick to overcome, as tour guide and firefighter David Jenks immediately realized, was language.
“How do you connect with water to the truck?” Ahmed asked in halting English, all the while gesturing with his hands as he searched for the right words.
A string of broken sentences preceded each question. Those initial sentence fragments made little sense, simply because Mohamed or Ahmed seemed to be in a trial-and-error search for the correct words to convey their thoughts.
After each half sentence, the Egyptians would abruptly shift directions, as if they had finally deciphered the translation.
Jenks repeated the question about the water connection to make sure he understood. He then pointed to a fire engine and a console on the truck’s side filled with dials, nozzles and wheels. Moments later, Jenks launched into an explanation.
“It looks a lot more complicated than it is,” Jenks said. “It’s basically just a big water spigot.”
Mohamed, 26, and Ahmed, 25, arrived in America in August as members of the international students program at Gadsden State Community College in Alabama.
“We are here to improve our skills and improve our language,” Ahmed said after touring the fire department.
Their first semester included an English course taught by Philip Crowder, a former professor at Virginia Intermont College and a current resident of Bristol, Tenn. They had to learn enough English to get them through the technical studies in other classes.
“They’re very motivated, very hard working,” Crowder said.
The professor hoped a weekend stay in the Tri-Cities would provide the two Egyptians with plenty of American flavor before the return home in July.
Some of that flavor was found on the trip to Bristol, and a detour to the Bass Pro Shops in Sevierville, Tenn., that brought out the tourist in the students.
“They were just amazed,” Crowder said. “They had their camera out and took all these pictures of just about everything.”
Their tour of the Tri-Cities began late Friday morning with a quick stop at the Bristol Regional Medical Center, and then a trip to the fire department.
Once in the department’s engine bay, Mohamed, Ahmed and Jenks discussed the rescue trade, despite the obvious language barrier.
Standing to the side with Crowder was Chief J.C. Bolling, who noted that he envied the Egyptians’ opportunity to see how the trade is done in another country and to pick up new ideas.
“You go down somewhere in South Carolina, and they have their own way to do emergency calls,” Bolling said. “Could you imagine if we got halfway around the world?”
Still, Mohamed and Ahmed agreed after the tour that the job of saving lives, despite differences in equipment and protocol, is pretty much the same all over the world.
“It is not American. It is not Egyptian. It is international,” Mohamed said. “All people have to do the same – save the life.”
mowens@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2549
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