Toronto Sun Article: January 21, 2008

By Michele Mandel

When they treat patients on the streets of Toronto, Robert Selfridge and Bill McCracken arrive without body armour or guards brandishing AK-47s.

But then this isn't an ordinary day at work.

In fact, it's their vacation and the two Toronto EMS paramedics are in northern Iraq for two weeks to help train 35 medics from across the country's autonomous Kurdish region. And while it's much colder than their usual volunteer training stints in southeast Asia, they've found the war-torn area not that much different than their previous missions.

"I wasn't as nervous as my wife was," laughs McCracken, 49, using his cellphone from his base in Ainkawa, just outside Irbil. "Once I got here things weren't the way the news portrayed it. There haven't been any problems here for two to three years."

That said, they don't travel without a convoy of armed guards and Selfridge, a former military man, admits the trip through the notoriously dangerous region of Karkuk in full body protection had his less experienced friend rather wide-eyed.

The biggest challenge, though, has been the cold. Baghdad has seen snow this winter for the first time in decades and Ainkawa lies 450 km to the north.

"This is more like Calgary than anywhere else," says Selfridge, 47. "I'm not used to teaching with gloves and toques and seeing your breath."

They are in Iraq to assist the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), which works to clear conflict zones of landmines, cluster bombs and other weaponry left behind. For several years, MAG has asked the Toronto-based Global Medic group of volunteer paramedics to train their local medics around the world.

But this is the group's first foray into Iraq.

"They're a great bonus to our program," says MAG program manager Chris Loughran, his British accent sailing across McCracken's mobile phone. "Iraq is one of the most affected areas in the whole world and the north is particularly contaminated from 2003 and right back to the Iran-Iraq war."

Using an interpreter and a lot of body language, the Toronto pair have been concentrating on improving the medics' abilities to treat blast injuries as well as the odd scorpion sting and poisonous snake bite. Their students, who quickly informed them that they prefer to be considered Kurdish rather than Iraqi, are thrilled to have Canadian teachers and all insist they have some relative or another who has found his way to the land of the maple leaf.

"They're extremely enthusiastic," McCracken says. "They just need a little fine-tuning. What's been most surprising is the poverty and living conditions of regular people is appalling. It's just scary -- the average income is about $300 US a month."

The two Toronto paramedics have almost 40 years of EMS experience between them and each has logged several journeys overseas with Global Medic. McCracken has trained in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand while Selfridge has also run programs in Sri Lanka and Sudan.

Their bosses back home are fully supportive of the program, but understandably, the volunteers have to use their vacation time.

So why aren't the two middle-aged men somewhere on a Florida golf course instead of using their holiday time to shiver halfway around the world in a country that's now known for constant suicide bombings shown on our nightly news?

"Oh, man, that's a loaded question," McCracken chuckles.

Part of it, he explains, is that Global Medic has allowed him to travel to countries he would otherwise never visit. "I'm not a five-star hotel kind of person. We go to parts of the world where conditions are not that great -- some have been hellholes."

And he says that with relish.

But it's not only about a Lonely Planet wanderlust, of course. "Our EMS gives us the free education. Why not pass it on to the rest of the world?" he adds. "It doesn't cost anything except our time. You can't put a price on it."

For the last seven years, Selfridge has been volunteering at least once a year and sometimes twice.

"By giving to others, it makes you appreciate what we have a lot more. It probably sounds like a cliche but it's true. You realize exactly how spoiled we are back home in a lot of ways.

"And it's fun. It gets us out of Toronto for a little while."

They fly home through Jordan Wednesday night and Selfridge will be back on the streets treating Toronto emergencies just two nights later.

"It's a bit of an adjustment," he admits. "The first couple of days you're a little depressed but we love doing our job and this is something that helps us continue."

As they count the days until their next far-flung assignment.

"Wherever they want to send us," Selfridge says, "I'm more than happy to go."