Thursday, March 3, 2005
Boy, this Blog thing is beginning to run into wall isn’t it? I hardly ever update it. To my loyal readers, I do apologize. I’m talking to myself, aren’t I. Oho oho oho.
As I put on my military dogtags, I am overcome by a sense of... morbidness, I realise that yes, I could die. And I feel just a bit scared. Of course, this is really very silly, and most veterans would probably laugh at how naïve I am. Of course, you can’t really blame me. I mean, this is the first time I’m going to a disaster-hit warzone.
I can tell I’m going to have trouble sleeping because tomorrow, I will be shipping out to Aceh. Well, Lokhsamawe to be exact. Another Indonesian port town nearby that was also affected by the December 26 Tsunami.
My mom is pretty much convinced I’ve lost my mind. As you can see, philanthropy is not a big thing with my family. Oh, don’t get me wrong. My folks are good people. It’s just that, well, volunteerism was never a big thing in my family. Makes you wonder where I get all my zeal from. Guilt probably.
Anyway, yeah. I went to Lokhsamawe as part of a logistics team that helped load and unload supplies for the local MRCS team in place. I can tell you now that my teammates worked tirelessly the 3 days we were there. The amount of dedication I see puts me to shame, so I grit my teeth and blink away the sweat that’s trickling into my eyes and haul heavy bag after heavy bag of rice. Bit by bit, bag by bag, box by box, the huge pile slowly disappears as the MRCS trucks haul them to HQ.
It was a unique experience. And we did get to around town a bit… the town itself was quite far from the sea, so it was pretty much untouched. The outlying areas though, were quite badly hit. And because of the salty water, what was once fertile farmland is now pretty much useless.
We visited a local community hit by the tsunami, and I was immediately surrounded by kids. We were given candy to hand out to the kids, and what do you know. First thing I do is accidentally bean a kid on the head with my elbow. I have NO idea how I did that… it was a complete accident, and I apologized profusely. I soon got the hang of it though, handing out little sweets and jelly to the precious little children.
But I’ll tell you one thing. Going around with the MRCS and Malaysian flags waving in the air is a humbling experience. Truly humbling. Wherever we went, we were met with grateful smiles, waves and honking of horns. Virtually everyone we met were just filled with gratitude at our help. I know this is corny, but to the Indonesians, those flags are a sign of hope. They are symbols that the worst is over and that things will get better. So yeah, as we pass through the streets, perfect strangers smile and wave at us and honk approvingly. We are treated as heroes, and it feels as if we are in a ticker-tape parade. I smile and wave back, but I know I do not deserve that accolade. I just got here! Imagine the volunteers who have spent weeks at camp. I felt like an impostor. But I smile and wave back anyway, and for a brief moment, the world is a better place.
The cool thing was that we went on a Navy Ship. The KD Mahawangsa, Pennant 1504. I learn that she’s a Korean vessel propelled by two Deutz 3,000hp engines, has a displacement of 4,500 tonnes and is about 26 years old. As we journeyed, the Commander took the opportunity to carry out drills and exercises. The coolest was the live fire exercises.
They fired exocet missiles at night, and the SHOOOOM as the missiles streaked into the night sky nearly burst my eardrums. On the way back, they had another live fire exercise, and this time the 57mm cannons on the fore and aft of the ship suddenly burst into life… they’re huge and heavy but the moment they activate, they move with surprising grace. They fire with a loud THUMP THUMP THUMP.
Then, came the 20mm anti-aircraft cannons on either side of the ship. The starboard cannon didn’t get off a single shot because they couldn’t even fit the ammunition into the cannon. A team of about 5 crewmen mucked about with the cannon. They finally gave up and took the whole thing apart, trying to figure out what went wrong. The port cannon fared slightly better. They managed to fire all of ONE round before the cannon jammed and they too had to take the whole cannon apart. The only thing that worked flawlessly were the small arms. Six 7.62mm GPMGs (General Purpose Machine Guns) affixed to points on the ship spewed out round after round after round.
I really want to talk about the feeling I had on the ship… out in the wide expanse of the sea, with nothing but sky above me. Night was amazing because the sky was just filled with stars. I spent hours just lying on the helicopter pad staring at sky…
Oh yeah! I also saw dolphins! That was just awesome… I was at the prow, when I saw these shapes jumping in and out of the water headed towards the ship and suddenly, like an official escort, a group of dolphins were directly in front of the ship, racing us. It was just amazing watching these creatures swimming. Before this, it was just on TV or in aquariums, and it’s not the same, y’know? They’re really graceful. I’m glad I got to see them.
So yeah… I’m grateful to God that He gave me the chance to serve my fellow man. Oh, don’t get me wrong… it’s not like I did a BIIIIIG thing, and what I did was nothing special. ANYONE could have done it. It was a small thing, but whatever little I can do to help I would gladly do, and I am glad God gave me this chance to be a good person.
