Mohamed Lafi, Tulane University International Student
Mohamed Lafi had been in New Orleans for four days when he was awakened in the middle of the night to evacuate the city.
A nurse from the Gaza Strip, Lafi had been named a Fulbright Scholar and was to begin studying public health at Tulane University this fall. Instead, Lafi began classes at the UNT Health Science Center’s School of Public Health last week.
“I’m starting to settle,” Lafi said. “I will study here until the end of the semester, and then we’ll see what happens.”
While Lafi was accustomed to the crisis and chaos associated with war, he was totally unfamiliar with hurricane, so he took the advice of friends when it came time to decide whether or not to evacuate as Hurricane Katrina turned toward New Orleans.
“The day before, we discussed the problem, what should we do,” Lafi said. “People who had gone through hurricanes before said, ‘It’s okay, don’t worry. There’s really nothing to worry about.’ So, the night before, we decided to stay. That same night at 4 o’clock, they called my roommate and I and said, ‘We’re leaving. Let’s go.’ It took us about 2 ½ hours to get out of New Orleans.”
From there, Lafi and his friends went to Lafayette, where they stayed with a friend’s relative for about two weeks. During the wait, Lafi checked the Tulane web site and the Amideast web site, since Amideast is sponsoring his stay in the United States as a student.
“During the second week, the Amideast people began to think that I needed to go to another university,” he said. “They contacted this university (UNTHSC), and there was a place. I thought about other choices, because at Emory University they have a similar program that I was going to study at Tulane, but they didn’t have a place for me.”
When Lafi first arrived at the health science center, he was greeted at the airport by Dianne Wynn, director of admissions for the School of Public Health. Lafi stayed at Wynn’s house that evening as well, and for a few days at another student’s house in the area, but now, he is rooming with two other international students who made their way from Tulane University.
“The people here are very nice,” Lafi said. “Everyone has been very helpful and welcoming.”
While Lafi didn’t experience the brunt of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath, he has been affected by the aftermath.
“I didn’t experience the hurricane itself, but I feel all of the influences of the hurricane,” Lafi said. “The scenes are very catastrophic. I saw the area where we lived. The water is to the roofs. We were very fortunate that we got out from there.”
For now, Lafi is trying to return to life as a graduate student. When he attended his first class last week, his classmates were taking their first test. The professor gave him the notes and information that he had missed, and said that Lafi and the other students who had arrived from Tulane University could make up the test at a latter date.
“I’m doing the best that I can to get the things that I’ve lost,” Lafi said. “I’m starting to feel some return of balance.”