An Act of Kindness

An original by Galvin Lee

 The sun peeking from the mountains, giving the dark blue sky a tint of
sunshine. The birds soaring high and freely, as I finish my cup of coffee.
Getting up early morning gives me a sense of relief, to still be up and alive.
This feeling never lasts long, at least until my dad passes me the daily paper.

As I try to flip over to the world news, I feel a sudden and peculiar feeling
chilling down my spine. Will it be headlines of another deadly Islamic State
attack, and across the page, a photo of buildings brought down to the ground?
Or will it be a crying parent comforting her injured child in Afghanistan? Every
single morning, I read the newspaper with fear, followed by a sense of pitiness
towards these innocent civilians that have to suffer in such inhumane conflicts.

One morning when the postman didnt send the daily paper over, I
switched on the television to watch the news on CNN instead. I couldnt
believe what was showing up on that TV screen. The speakers blasting the
background noise, noises of guns and shouting militants, while the screen
showed doctors and nurses helping a crying child, whose leg was crushed by
an enormous boulder. The boy an his mother were both injured by these evil,
radical, inhumane and insane terrorists. I was held speechless as a thought
scrambled through my mind.

As a fresh graduate from an Ivy-league medical school, I was wondering

what kind of a future was ahead of me as I was waiting for the enlistment to the
General Hospital in my city. As soon as the news report concluded, I had a
vision of my future. A glimpse of hope shone right in front of me. I never felt so
passionate and confident throughout the 26 years of life. I searched through
the pile of papers on the table and I found what I was looking for, a brochure
from the UNHCR searching for volunteers for their campaign.

I have decided to join the UNHCR program as a volunteer medical officer,

alongside many first aid responders, nurses and doctors in the deadly
battlegrounds of Syria and Iraq. I never had such a fighting spirit in myself but
everytime I encounter flashbacks of how children and civilians suffer on Middle
Eastern soil, I felt the blast of compassion and kindness to save these innocent
lives. I immediately applied for the program and packed my bags. Before I
actually depart for the first meeting at the UNHCR office, I had a emotional
scuffle with my parents, as they strongly forbade me from going. After
spending quite some time pursuading them, they finally let in and gave me
their blessing.

Over the next few days, I was rushing back and forth to the UNHCR office
for briefings and meetings. Finally, it was the day for the response team to
depart towards the Middle East. Along the 8-hour journey, I had mixed feelings,
being terrified of the obstacles ahead of me but brave at the same time,
knowing that this may be a chance to save a lot of lives. I took a nap to
energise myself and the moment the plane touched down on the landing strip
in Mosul, I was ready to put my medical skills to good use.

We departed for the city central of Mosul, where the Islamic State fighters
have gained major control of. In my white doctors coat, holding a stethescope
in my hands, I went from door to door, building to building to treat any
casualties fighting for their lives. In just a couple of hours before the sun hid
behind the mountains, my originally white coat turned dark red and brown,
drenched in blood, sweat and mud, but that didnt stop me from charging
ahead. I knew for a fact that in the next few hours, it could be life or death for
many of those injured.
 Over 13 hours had passed and Ive not had any rest, so I decided to find a
corner for a quick nap before returning to my tasks but before I even had the
chance to fall asleep, I felt a vigurous shake on my shoulder. My team leader
gathered the whole UNHCR response team, as the Islamic State fighters were
charging into the area fiercely. He told us that weve got to get onto the next
plane to head to safety. We packed as many of our belongings as we could in
the dark and quietly headed towards the airport. As we fled to Abu Dhabi for
the time being, I once again, felt relief as I was still safe and alive after the
many crucial events that happened in the past 36 hours.

We checked into our rooms at the United Nations base in Abu Dhabi. After
so much hard work, I was delighted that I could finally take a warm shower and
head to bed for some rest. As I reached into the pocket of my doctors coat, I
found a necklace that was covered in blood and mud. This pendant was given
to me by an Iraqi child who was on his deathbed. Instantly, tears began rolling
down my cheeks as I remembered the look on his face, that hopeless look, as
he knew that he was about to leave this world. Although I was in safe land, my
heartbeat never slowed down.

I headed to the office to give my parents a quick phone call. They were so
happy to hear that I was safe. Being able to still hear my mothers voice
through the speakers, it was a heart-warming sensation that could absolutely
calm myself down. As much as they were worried, I felt bad to put them in such
an emotionally taxing position, fearing that their only child would be gone at
any given time but I was asking myself, if it wasnt for the selflessness in every
single member of the UNHCR response team, who would be helping these
innocent people escape a tragedy? Someone had to do it and I decided to be
part of it, so I reassured them that everything was fine and I quickly hopped
back to bed.

The next morning as I walked down the quiet corridor to grab my coffee,
my team leader was already gathering everyone as we received an urgent call
from the office in Syria. A suicide bombing incident had just happened and an
estimated 400 people were in danger. In a quick swift, we prepared ourselves
as we flew towards Syria. On the plane, I was talking to Jason, who also went
through a difficult decision with his family before joining the response team.
We got along really well as we had the same sentiments towards our noble
mission.

As soon as we concluded our mission in Syria, I bid farewell to the rest of

the team and I went back home. As soon as I stepped out of the taxi right in
front of my house, my mother dashed towards me to give me a warm hug while
my dad gave me a pat on my shoulder, followed by a satisfied smile. Kindness
can be heard, kindness can be felt, but my kind of kindness, is to let the
children of Syria be able to do so too.