Unprepared talk by  Tamalia Alisjahban, an Indonesian interpreter

on the last night of the USNS Mercy mission in Indonesia

As promised...
"I think that it was Sir Arthur Chesterfield who said something along the lines
that the human species is happiest when it is of service to others. Well, I do
not think that I shall ever be on a happier ship than this one.
You, doctors and nurses who have worked on this ship treating the wounded
Acehnese tsunami survivors are extremely special people with an enormous
compassion and empathy for others, especially for those who are suffering. You
are truly good people - if you were not you would never have volunteered to be
on this ship and I think that when a large group of truly good and caring people
are collected together in one place like this - it creates a certain energy of
its own which has far reaching effects.
I do not know if you are aware of it but when I left Jakarta to join the Mercy
the front page article of one the newspapers in Jakarta was about how Indonesian
public opinion towards America was taking a major turn. This happened after
Indonesians started reading about and watching via the television the thousands
of mercy missions flown by the helicopters of the USNS Abraham Lincoln off the
coast of Aceh. Daily the helicopters dropped food, water and medical supplies to
the survivors of the tsunami whom my government would never have been able to
reach in time after the enormous destruction of roads, bridges and
communications by the tsunami. And later Indonesians witnessed the compassion of
the doctors and nurses of the USNS Mercy as they treated over 19,500 Acehnese
patients and performed over 250 operations. I do not think that any other
government in the world would have been able to provide such an enormous quantity

of aid so rapidly because no other government is equipped with the
enormous war machine that the United States has and what happened is that in the
last three months we have watched that great war machine being used for
something totally different and in a way that was completely foreign to us. It
was being used to save and heal thousands of lives and quite frankly, at first
we Indonesians watched with suspicion and then in puzzlement but finally with
gratitude and fondness.
During the last days before the departure of the ship many of the patients were
returned to shore to finish their final recuperation at Indonesian hospitals
many of which are just starting to fully function again. It was a very emotional
time for me as I have had to translate for many of the patients and doctors and
nurses as they bid each other farewell. Over and over again this is what the
patients have been saying, "I do not know how to thank you. I cannot repay you
for what you have done. I have nothing with which to repay you. It is only God
who will be able to repay you for what you have done..."
It is one thing to heal people and to give them medical aid but I think that
there is another element in all this that you may not be aware of. These people
that you have been treating are the poorest of the poor. They eat chicken or
meat perhaps once a year. If they eat fish twice a week that is already good.
Normally, their meal will be a plate of rice with some chilly peppers and a bit
of swamp spinach or other vegetable. There has been an insurgency going on here
for many years. The military comes and extorts money out of them and burns their
houses. Then the separatists come and kidnap them, extort money out of them and
burn their houses. They are frequently caught in the cross-fire between the
military and the separatists and it doesn't matter because they are just garbage
- people of no value. If they go to a hospital for help they are not kept
waiting for hours - they are sometimes kept waiting for days and they are
treated with arrogance and without care. Indifference is often the best they can
expect. And then they came here. Here you not only healed their bodies but you
treated them with such gentleness, such compassion and such great courtesy. For
the first time in their lives they were treated as human beings who have worth.
You see a man who has lost an arm, a patient who has lost a leg and yet when
they leave the ship they are all smiling. The joy in them is overwhelming. They
are perhaps happier than they have ever been in their lives because for the
first time they are aware of their worth as people - that their thoughts and
feelings and lives count. When they leave here they know that they are valuable.
They leave with self-esteem. This is something very special and very rare that
you have given them.
In Indonesia the words for "thank you" are "terima kasih" which if you translate
them literally mean "accept love" for what is it to give someone thanks other
than to gave them a part of your love? So allow me on behalf of my country and
my people to express to you our gratitude and to give you our love."