A Fulbright Student Story
As an emergency nurse, I used to face emergencies in different sizes, I used to receive a large number of injured people from military incursions, traffic accidents or explosions and managed it all effectively, without getting anxious. But I have never seen catastrophes the size of Hurricane Katrina.
My name is Mohamed Lafi, and I am a 38-year-old Fulbright Scholar from Rafah, Palestine. I have worked as an emergency nurse for the last 10 years in different places.
In the last five years, I have worked for the European Gaza Hospital in the Gaza strip. I also worked a part-time job for the Palestine College of Nursing as a clinical instructor for student nurses.
A few months ago, I got a final confirmation from the Council on International Exchange of Scholars that I had received a Fulbright scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in public health. My choice was Tulane University in New Orleans, because it had a special program that deals with complex emergencies, but I have faced many difficulties from the beginning: getting the visa, studying an intensive course of English, moving from Ohio to New Orleans, then moving to Lafayette in Louisiana, and lastly, arriving in Fort Worth, Texas.
One of the difficult things Gaza residents face is getting a visa to travel to other countries, especially to the United States. The nearest U.S. embassy is located in Tel-Aviv, where Palestinians hardly can enter into Israel. The Amideast office people in Gaza worked hard to get me a one-day permit to go the embassy and apply for a visa.
I expected to receive my visa after one week, but more than two weeks passed and no visa. I was very confused. What to do with my work in the hospital and in the college? The waiting period was very difficult and stressing.
I got my visa three weeks later. I started my pre-academic program at Ohio University three weeks late. Having come to the United States for the first time, I had to adjust to the new culture, to stand with all the requirement of the courses, and make new friends.
After 50 days at Ohio University, when I had already adjusted to everything, I had to move to New Orleans. I contacted an Arab student studying at Tulane University before coming to New Orleans. I stayed the first night with him. In the morning, he took me to Tulane.
I met the international student advisor. I did what I had to do with all of the paperwork, and I was told to come back on Aug. 28 to the orientation program.
We looked around in the downtown area-- New Orleans was a very nice city.
We met other people who helped me find a room. I moved to Arabi, a city about 20 minutes by the bus from the university.
I actually stayed five days in New Orleans waiting for my program to start. During those days I sat for a long time watching TV. The weather channel talked all the time about the coming hurricane Katrina, and I asked my roommate and the people I met about the hurricane. All the people assured me “Don’t worry; we’ll be OK.”
The midnight before Hurricane Katrina was to land, my roommate and I met many people, and we discussed what we had to do. People who experienced hurricanes before said, “We will wait until the morning,” and everybody agreed.
At four o’clock the same night, a person called us, and he said people are escaping from the city. We decided also to escape. I took my handbag, which contained my certificates and passport and left every thing. People told me “It’s few days, and we’ll come back.”
Fortunately, my roommate has a brother living in Lafayette, La., about 130 miles from New Orleans. We called him, and he welcomed us to stay with him. I spent two weeks waiting until I found an alternative program with the help of Stephanie Lisella my Amideast advisor.
Finally I arrived at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and registered in the School of Public Health in the community health program.
People here are very helpful, especially the director of academic and student services, Diane Wynn, who received me in the airport and helped me settle in Fort Worth and start my study.