More on the MDA course

MDA COURSE

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When I first got here, I was so surprised at how diverse our group was.  As an American, I’ve never really been a minority in that sense, but here I am.  We had students from Brazil, Venezuela, Guatemala, England, Holland, Australia, and Hungary.  We all have at least a basic understanding of Hebrew and English, but after that it differs.  We’re all between the ages of 17 and mid twenties.

            We started off learning basic by-stander CPR without equipment, then learned with the equipment.  We learned team and solo, and mevoogar, yeled, v’tynook (adult, child, and infant).  That night we had situational practice with our crazy instructor afterwards.

            The second day we learned more CPR details and practiced our skills, but soon moved on to more complicated treatments scenarios.  We were taught about respiratory distress, syncope, CVA, diabetes, hypo- and hyper-glycaemia, and many other things.  That night, Danel took us for a run (well, some of us ran…), and then we had some group bonding afterwards.

            Today (Wednesday 14 12 11) we are learning about the cardiovascular system and problems that can occur with it, but we stopped class early when we got the chance to go see a Natan ambulance.  We played around with the equipment and took pictures for a while, and then it was time for lunch.

            A word about our instructors: they’re crazy.  But really intelligent.  We have two.  One is an Israeli-bred guy, Danel, who has the weirdest accents.  In the same lesson we’ll hear a very deep Israeli accent, a perfectly normal American accent (with even a Southern twang, sometimes), and everything in between.  Our other instructor is an Aussie who frequently travels.   While the Israeli, Danel, takes us for a run late at night, Ben, the Aussie, will invite us to yoga in the morning and make fun of the British girl’s accent.  They’ve both been working with MDA for a very long time and they both know all the in’s and out’s of everything.  They can answer almost every question we have, and if they can’t, they find out right away.

            The class itself is a lot of fun, too.  It is a very intense, fast-paced class, and I love it.  We’ll do a slideshow and learn everything about everything that has to do with electrocution, watch videos of actual electrocution occurrences, and then practice dealing with a hypothetical electrocution situation.  We’re also learning much more Hebrew as it is incorporated into the class as we move on. 

            Our off-time, also, is just as interesting as the classes.  The area we’re in is sort of a dead zone in Jerusalem, but we can see hills and forests and there is a zoo nearby.  There’s a group of hundreds of teenage girls here, however, and there’s not a moment that goes by, whether it’s 3am or 3pm, that we cannot hear them yelling somewhere.  As much as we complain to their director, they just won’t be quieter!  Despite that, a good aspect of Beit Yehuda is the food.  Every meal is loaded with amazing food, and every lunch and dinner has a very chocolaty dessert afterwards.

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            The class was amazing.  Really, it was.  Everything, from the lessons to the practice to just hanging out with the group was perfect.  I made such good friends in a short time, and I really miss them all already.  We tried to study together, but it was hard because we just kept laughing.  We eventually had to separate ourselves into different rooms to actually get some studying done.  In our off time, we watched movies, learned Krav Maga, worked out, danced, sang, did ‘girly’ things, and just had so much fun together.  We spent so much time together that we have multitudes of inside jokes and we all know each other pretty well.  At the Beit Yehuda guesthouse, where we stayed, we ate rice every single day for both lunch and dinner, and had the chocolate cake or white creamy stuff afterwards.

            During the course, the stress piled on until test day, when we were all hysterically worried.  We took a written test and then had three practical tests (CPR, PHTLS and back boarding, and vital signs with dressing wounds and stabilizing fractures).  After we tested, our evil instructors made us wait what seemed like an eternity until we found out our results, but I passed!!!  We spent our last night and day together relishing the relaxation and reminiscing.  Two other girls and I made a slideshow of the class that we showed at the end, which had everyone laughing.  We stayed up late talking, and had a very emotional goodbye when we all split up this morning.  We already have plans to see each other soon, though.

            Tonight, however, I need to get some sleep (after our Hanukkah party, of course.  Dreidels with ‘pey’ instead of ‘shin’), because my very first shift is tomorrow afternoon!  Chag Sameach l’kulam!