May 2022 Student Spotlight: Ramy Musa
Ramy Musa immigrated to the United States from Sudan just over 2 years ago, and he now lives in Rochester with his wife and children. Ramy plans to apply to the Clinical Lab Technician program at MCC. In “The Bloody Accident,” Ramy tells us a story about a disastrous accident that ended with a surprisingly happy twist.
The Bloody Accident
Every culture in the world has a kind of specialty. In Sudanese culture, we value helping people. As humans, we come to a certain point that we are connected because we all value our families and the community around us. The marriage celebration is usually one of these feelings of happiness together. However, my friend’s wedding was an exception because of what happened after the ceremony. As happiness gathers people, also, the sadness of crisis can gather people to help each other.
My memory takes me to a nice summer night in July 1999 when we celebrated my best friend’s marriage. I had been a friend with the groom Hussam since our high school days, and then we went to the same college. We made some more college friends. One month before the wedding, my other friends and I started helping Hussam prepare for the marriage.
On the marriage night, we participated in our traditional Sudanese customs including dancing, henna, and even the groom and the bride drank the milk. Drinking and spraying milk is a tradition in our culture done by the groom and bride because people believe in it as a kind of optimism and hope that their lives together will be pure and white like the milk. It was one of the best nights I enjoyed with my friends.
After the party finished, I drove, and three of my college friends were with me since we had a deal that we would sleep together this night in my house. It was about 2 am, a dark, cloudy night, and a drizzle of rain started. Everything was quiet and no one was on the road except a few cars. We did not speed because we enjoyed chatting with each other remembering what funny things happened at the wedding. We were glad that everything went smoothly, and all the guests who came looked very happy at the party.
Suddenly, we stopped talking because we heard the sound of screeching brakes and saw a small white car like a Mini Cooper in size, braking in front of us, and the car started to lose control. This white car was speeding, as they had just passed us at a high speed. After the driver lost control of his car, the car went off the road and crashed into a big tree beside the road. I was shocked and totally surprised. I felt that I was dreaming or watching a movie. I stopped my car and stopped breathing for a few seconds. Even my mouth was open, and it took a few seconds until I consumed my shock. I only heard silence. Then I opened my door and ran to the car without a word to my friends. They quickly followed me.
Even though I left my car’s headlights on, we couldn’t see well because it was so dark. When I arrived at the car, I realized that all the front side and the windshield were damaged, but the car was still running. I looked inside the car, and there were two men inside it. After trying hard, we opened the driver’s door to help the people inside the car. From the weak light, I saw that blood was everywhere and covered the driver’s face. At that time, I thought that he was unconscious because I tried to talk with him, but there was no response. With all this blood covering his face I feared that he was in serious danger. One of my friends helped me pull him out of the car, and the other two did the same for the other man. We took them to the hospital, and we thought that we did our best to save their lives.
One day a few months later, when I was in college a young man behind me called me, “Ramy, Ramy.” I stopped when I realized that this was Ali who I knew well from college. He hugged me and started to say, “Thank you, thank you!!!”
I was surprised at what he did and said, and I looked at him with confusion. I asked him, “For what?” He continued, “You saved my life.” This made me more confused. He laughed and resumed, “Do you remember an accident four months before, and you took the injured people to the hospital?”
I replied, “Yes.”
“So, I am the man you saved that night.” I just froze and looked at him from top to bottom. He continued, “Some broken bones and a deep wound in my head, the blood flowed through it and covered my face and most of my body.” That really shocked me because when I saw the driver at the crash site, I did not think that he could make it and survive. And in the end, to my surprise, all this time I knew him. Then he mentioned that when I talked to him that night, he recognized me, and he wanted to answer, but he couldn’t.
I collected myself and with a voice full of joy and happiness I said to him, “Welcome back to life.” We talked for a while and made a promise to meet again.
That night, I celebrated a traditional Sudanese wedding with my friends, and we felt happy and enjoyed a nice night. By the end of the night, I felt the tragedy and sadness from the accident, but we helped them because we followed our culture to help people even if you do not know them. Until today, I still feel surprised that I thought I was helping a stranger, but unexpectedly, I was helping a friend.
ESOL Voices a collection of stories written by ESOL students at Monroe Community College. This publication highlights our MCC students who come from all over the world. Look for new stories in the Tribune. We hope you enjoy our students’ stories as much as we do.
Katie Leite & Pamela Fornieri, ESOL Program, May 2022