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By AMANDA STEPHENSON
The Canadian Press

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MEDICINE HAT, Alta. - As a single mother in Medicine Hat, Reanna Teske's life has been very different from that of Ahmed Mohamed and his wife Nafisa Hassan, who came to Canada as Ethiopian refugees in February.

But that hasn't stopped Teske from welcoming the African couple with open arms.

"As far as our everyday conversations, it's a lot of laughing," Teske says. "There are cultural differences, but they're so easygoing - if I've done anything to offend them, they haven't let me know."

Teske is one of many Medicine Hat residents who is stepping beyond the barriers of culture and language to get to know members of the city's growing immigrant community. She met Mohamed and Hassan - who live in her apartment building - through Saamis Immigration Services' HOST program, which matches newcomers with local volunteers interested in getting to know members of another culture and helping them to feel at home in their new community.

Teske has done everything from practising English with Mohamed and Hassan to taking them grocery shopping to speaking on their behalf to their landlord or doctor's office.

Beyond the practical help, however, Teske simply tries to be a friendly face in what could otherwise be a city of strangers. She and Mohamed and Hassan have each other over for meals, and went to the Calgary Stampede together this summer. Hassan is great with Teske's one-year-old daughter Abby, and Teske is learning about Ethiopian music and culture.

"She deals with us like a brother and sister," Mohamed says.

"She is a good friend," Hassan adds.

"I try to just kind of make them more comfortable with people," Teske says. "So they know that they're welcome here."

In fact, those who deal with immigrants on a daily basis say Medicine Hat is a very welcoming community. Linda Gale, director of Saamis Immigration Services, says her organization has always been greeted by the public with great interest and offers to help.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary under the Saamis name, the organization was actually born in the mid-1970s as the Medicine Hat Immigrant Services Society, in response to the plight of the Vietnamese Boat People. Today, the Saamis Immigration Services Association has more than a dozen full-time staff and close to 25 contract employees devoted to providing settlement services for newcomers from all over the world.

The organization thrives on volunteer support - many of the names on Saamis' list of volunteer interpreters, for example, are local people who have acquired language skills by taking part in church missions overseas or working in the oilfields of Saudi Arabia.

And Saamis Immigration's Reception House - which serves as a home for newly arrived refugees before they can find an apartment - is unique among small communities. It couldn't exist if the Westminster United Church hadn't donated its old manse, and if the community hadn't stepped up with donations to furnish it.

Gale says recently arrived immigrants report a far better experience in Medicine Hat than their counterparts in larger centres - in large part because of the positive reception they get from the community and the many supports that are available.

"In Calgary, all they get is a bus pass," Gale says.

Annette Wolfer, co-ordinator of Saamis' HOST program, asks for a one-year commitment from HOST volunteers, but Teske plans to continue her relationship with Mohamed and Hassan past that time frame.

"It's not so much volunteer work - it's more meeting a new friend," she says.