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First Aid Training in the Sinai
React First founder and director of training, Charles Holmes spent an interesting two weeks out in the South Sinai in Egypt helping to train guides as part of a local Bedouin Guiding agency Sheikh Sina Sheikh Sina was founded by an EU initiative intended to equip Bedouin guides with hospitality management and language skills. The overall aim of the project is to improve mountain tourism operations in South Sinai by raising the quality of the already existing mountain hikes. Safety is of utmost importance, as are a stress on lowered environmental impacts. We also take the empowerment of local guides seriously and make sure that they are securing livelihoods through Sheikh Sina. Hikers will have a rich experience interacting with the Bedouin guides and experiencing South Sinai nature.He recounts his experiences below and a gallery of photos is available here.Sinai News 2008The Sinai is commentated on as a meeting point of continents, where Africa meets the Asia and where trading routs, profits and pharoes have all left their mark! It was time for React First to do a foray.Depending on your perspective the Sinai could range from anything from be "24000 square miles of nothing" to a series of contrived splendorous beach side resorts where the diving is good, but sadly you may remember Sharma El Sheik fell victim of a terrorist bombing some 5 years ago. This has left the inland areas all but devoid of tourism. I was visiting the village of St Katherine's which is an area of religious significance and austere beauty.Jenny had been travelling along the Silk Route a few years ago and made friends with an intriguing, sounding guy named Dave Lucas who seemed to have done more new climbing routes than most in the South Sinai amongst many other places. He was heading up an EU project to promote independent local tourist development in the area. I did not quite understand what that meant nor how I could help, but it was August and RF had had a good year so of I booked my Excell flight and went. . . The transit from Sham was longer than I had anticipated and when I arrived it was to the Bedouin camp in St Katherine's in the early hours. Within a brief introduction to some of the dozen or so expats in the region and both Sheik Mouse's, I was off teaching a course to a group of people I did not know - which I was used to -about a subject they new very little - which I was used to - in a language and culture that limited understanding of!!I quickly learned that the language/culture barrier had little to be worried about. Sure the course took a little more time due to interpretation and the calls to prayer and perhaps the training room wasn't quite built yet, but the most important points were there - a relationship between myself and the students and a willingness to learn. The tribe in the area I was most closely associated with was the Jebeliya, who descend from the Greek servant families who came to serve the monastery of St Katherine's, renowned for their friendliness and recognisable by their blue headgear.There were many amusing cultural similitudes such as the term to "throw a spanner in the works" - for the Bedouin the term is "to put string in the saw" and "it is better to lose a hand than your sole" rather than "life over limb". Essentially their was little difference between the courses taught in the S Sinai it just took more time. I learned new words to express myself but I was fascinated at how little it seemed to matter that we did not speak the same language. When I challenged students to explore how they might feel treating a western lady or another mans wife in the village, the look was of genuine incredulity - of course we would if they were in trouble. This pragmatism was in my experience endemic of the Bedouin around St Catherine's. I suppose that the harsh terrain and climate had made them so. It was easy to relate the systematic and casualty centred first aid approach to them when the reality off getting an airlift in the area after the Camp David agreement was negligible. The nearest definitive medical care was six hours away in Cairo or perhaps four in Sharm and the grey spending power was making nightly pilgrimages up Mount Musa along steep uneven paths. There were no defibrillators around so providing a satisfactory rational for following CPR protocols proved interesting. It had not rained in the area for 3 years and so visits to the beautiful gardens in the area threatened by the drought also had increased issues surrounding casualty care and incident management. As a result some of the best role plays I have seen came out of the course involving casualties "falling of their Camel" rather than "out of their tree".In time tourism will return to the area and when it does Dave is determined that all the Bedouins tribes of the Sinai have first and aid mountain leader training. Other expats are concerned with developing their communication and marketing skills. If you have anytime and skills to offer then you would be welcome in the area and I can highly recommend a trip out there.http://www.sheikhsina.com/english/ 27/10/2008
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