Kuwait Fire Force officers travel to Mesa to study for associates degree
Fire Force officers from the Middle Eastern country of Kuwait have recently traveled to study at Mesa Community College to earn an associate’s degree in Fire Science and be promoted to a higher rank back home.
This group consists of 29 employed Fire Force members, Kuwait’s national emergency responders, who are on a full time education trip to Arizona to study at MCC.
Officers would attend MCC’s Fire Science program and believed studying in the United States would be beneficial for their learning experience.
“In America it’s a bigger country than Kuwait, it’s further, and they have more fire situations than Kuwait, and more factories and more like companies,” stated Muhammad Alazmei, one of the students from Kuwait.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to study here to learn more and take more experience back home,” added Alazmei.
Student Amer Alraqei, also acknowledged the benefits of coming to learn fire science in the U.S. by referencing the 2018 California wildfires and sudden spread of fires happening across the country.
Alraqei acknowledges that just watching videos of the fires occurring in the US will only get you contextual information and not hands-on, realistic skills experience.
“In our country we have some people who have knowledge to fight the fire, but other people know how to protect people and let them out of the building, a rescue team. It’s like when I see the mission in the U.S., I will take experience in a different culture,” said Alraqei.
Alazmei stated that Kuwait rarely deals with disasters such as forest fires or earthquakes. Therefore, Kuwait’s Fire Force is sent to other countries to deal with such situations such as earthquakes in Turkey or forest fires in Greece to gain experience in these situations.
Both Alraqei and Alazmei arrived in Arizona near Christmas last December and have since found a place to stay.
Although the officers are staying in a variety of cities from Mesa to Scottsdale, many of them are still in small groups and are accompanied by a fellow countryman each day.
Alazmei acknowledged that there is a real sense of comfortability when entering a new country and being surrounded by your culture.
“If you end up without any culture of your country, you will find it hard a bit in the meantime. But it’s better. I think for me it’s better to have people that you know, or speak the same language, same culture, same food,” said Alazmei.
Alraqei agreed with this sentiment but also had a goal in mind to try to communicate in as much English as possible. Alraqei is currently learning English as his second language and wants to improve these skills and attempt to communicate more in English than his native language of Arabic.
For Alazmei, this is only his second time coming to the United States since being eight years old in 1996, where his father was working in New York. For Alraqei, this is his first time arriving in the US.
Both Alraqei and Alazmei have acknowledged that there is not much of a cultural difference that has jumped out at them yet, however they are glad to see that they are surrounded by smiling faces everywhere they go in their neighborhood.
The officers are currently on a pathway from the Ministry of Higher Education in Kuwait to receive their Associates at MCC and later travel to Eastern Kentucky University to receive their bachelor’s degree.
