Emergency First Response

In preparation of the Rescue Diver course, I had to get some kind of first aid certificate, Emergency First Response.

Appointment is on Saturday morning in the Water Sports Centre.

The instructor waits me and introduces himself: I am Abdul Karim, but you can call me Abdul. And what's your name?

I'm Ilse.

Ah, du kommst aus Deutschland!

No, I'm not from Germany.

But Ilse is a German name.

Could be, but do all the people named Abdulkarim from Zanzibar?

He hesitates before he says "eeh, yes!" . But, despite his answer, he understands.

And with this tension the lesson starts. It starts with a movie, as always with PADI courses.

This is followed by a quiz, I answer correctly on about all the questions.

Follows the practice. Abdul begins to explain again what I actually just have seen in the movie, but sometimes in he uses his own interpretation. If I ask a questions, he is annoyed. He is the teacher, I am the student, I just have to accept what he says, no questions. It's that simple.

Actually I am not surprised about his behaviour. I have experienced the opposite in Kenya: when I was teaching, no one dared to ask me a question spontaneously, I had to push to my listeners to speak and to be critical. So I keep myself to the most urgent and important questions ...

Practice. Mouth to mouth breathing and chest compressions. To exercise this, Abdul has brought a doll along, or at least the upper body of a first aid doll.

I ask him what her name is. He looks around and then suddenly says "little Anne".

Hmm, I have my doubts: Little Anne has no breasts. I make him aware of, "It can not be a  woman, she has no breasts."

In his eyes I see again that irritation: no questions!

The bag of pop says "little Anne", breasts or no breasts, her name is “little Anne”.

The lips of little Anne get disinfected for mouth-to-mouth breathing and for the chest compression I have to put my hands between the non-breast of Anne. These things can not practiced on living persons.

The last part of the course consists of a few other First Aid tricks: staunching of a bleeding wound, splinting a broken leg or arm, saving someone from suffocation death by choking. Practical exercise this time is don on living people: ourselves.

And especially the latter - choking -  is again sensitive. You have to push up the diaphragm.

Abdul is Muslim, and he cannot touch me, being a woman. So he explains me the exercise first in a theoretical way, than I apply the practice on him.

At the end of the day I get my certificate. But I do wonder what will happen if something happens to me, and I start asking questions to my "saviour" ... would he dare to touch me?