New friends

Welcome back to Malta, and their first snow in years!  Just my luck, we are experiencing a cold snap.  I got back from Italy late in the evening and woke up the next morning to pouring rain, howling wind and reports of snow and hail.  It was still nice to be home, too bad I had to brave the storm to stock up on essential groceries.

I decided I needed some volunteer work to keep me busy and as a way to meet people.  (Don't worry Habitat friends, I'm still very involved, though now mostly with the safety program.)  My ever helpful landlady Karla pointed me in a few directions.  One was raising puppies to be used as guide dogs.  Sounds great, but they want a 10 month commitment.  The next suggestion was rocking babies down the road at a kind of orphanage.  No luck there, they have a volunteer wait list.  How about the SPCA?  Went there and they also were turning people away.  While its bad for me that I can't find something to do, I think it says a lot about the community that so many people are involved.  I finally found something interesting, I'm now involved in an outreach program with the US Embassy.  Basically I go to local schools and read from of an American story to the kids, then we discuss it.  The point is to teach them about the US and help them practice English.  For my first story I picked Call of the Wild by Jack London.  It has all kind of interesting elements; dogs, Alaska, the gold rush, perseverance, overcoming obstacles, adventure and so on.  I had just over a week to read the book and put together some pictures to go along with the story. 

I enjoyed my meeting with the public affairs officer so much that she and her family met me later in the week for dinner.  They were really fun, too bad she is leaving for another posting shortly.  She hooked me up with another organization at the Malta National Aquarium called SharkLab.   http://sharklab-malta.org/  Its a non profit dedicated to research, education and raising greater awareness about all Elasmobranch (Sharks, Rays, Skates and Chimaeras) around Malta and within the Mediterranean.  My first outing with them was to comb the beach looking for egg casings.   An egg case or mermaid's purse or devil's purse, is a casing that surrounds the fertilized eggs of some sharks, skates, and chimaeras. They are made of collagen protein strands. Once the shark or skate hatches, these empty casings wash up on the beach.   Our mission is to find as many as possible.  This helps the organization gauge the number and types of sharks and skates in a particular area.  They also go to the docks at the crack of dawn (4 AM ish) and meet the fishing boats as they bring in the days catch.  If any of the sharks have viable eggs, those are harvested and taken back to the aquarium to hatch and later release.  They also weigh and measure the adults but they have to be very fast at it.  The fishermen are in a hurry to cut them up and get them to the fish markets.  I think I'll pass on that part. I actually found a casing from a spotted ray.  The day didn't start out so well though, I thought I found a shark casing  and called Greg, (one of the founders).  He was kind enough to ponder over it for a minute, as if it looked like it might be something.  He declared it not to be an egg casing, but did say I was on the right tack, it was the right shape and size.  Sadly it was a light bulb. LOL  He had instructed us not to touch them until he had taken a picture, so I didn't.  I actually had a nice day; we got to hang out at a beautiful beach and I met some interesting people.

In addition to volunteer work, I finally found a hiking group.  They have a FB page and it said 160 people had signed up for an upcoming hike.  That's a little more than I usually go with, but OK.  I went to the bus stop and there was a young lady who looked as if she might be going hiking.  I thought about asking her, but then thought she could be going anywhere.  I didn't want to look foolish, what were the odds?  Well, turned out they were pretty high; as we got near the destination I heard her ask the bus driver where the stop was.  I caught her eye and asked if she had signed up for the hike and she said yes.  A female voice right behind me said, well that makes 3 of us.  This was starting out great!  The walk was a geological walk lead by a PhD who specializes in mapping the seafloor.  He was going to point out geological features as we walked, and he may have, but with so many people, there was no way to get close.  My 2 new friends and I started off in the middle of the pack.  Alice was the youngest, and Maltse.  Annette was closer to my age.  She's German and was in Malta for a week.  She's been coming here for years and knows a lot of people and interesting places.  The trail started off on level ground, but quickly turned into a steep incline as we made our way down to the sea.  Annette and I dropped farther and farther back because going downhill was really hard on our old knees.  Spring chicken Alice eventually made her way toward the front of the pack I think. On the positive side, our shared pain gave Annette and I something to bond over.  As the terrain got steeper, we fell farther back until eventually we were not only last, but totally lost sight of the other 158 people!  By the time we made it down to level ground, the group had been to the destination and had turned around and was starting back.  We briefly talked about turning around now and enjoying being up front, but quickly decided that was a very bad idea.  The trail was narrow and the journey back would be just as hard.  We would be blocking the trail and everyone would suffer.  We decided to keep going to see what they were looking at. As it turns out, it was just rocks so we called it a day and headed back.  We found a trail that wasn't as steep and eventually it took us back to the road.  On the way home, we met up again with Alice and asked her to join us for lunch, but she had other plans.  For the rest of the week, Annette became my most awesome travel buddy.

Our first outing was to the city of Mdina.  The history of Mdina traces back more than 4000 years. In 60 A.D. Apostle St. Paul is said to have lived here after being shipwrecked on the Islands. Also referred to as the "the silent city", Mdina is fascinating to visit for its timeless atmosphere as well as its cultural and religious treasures.  The streets are extremely narrow and all the buildings are very well maintained.  Many of the windows have flower boxes and the doors are painted deep, rich colors.  The city is completely enclosed within a massive limestone wall.  Think of a huge castle, complete with a massive stone archway for a gate.  The only cars allowed in the city belong to the people who live there.  If a horse drawn carriage comes in, the horses hooves and carriage wheels must be be covered in rubber as not to damage the streets.  There is a beautiful church in the center and several shops and restaurants.  I had heard one restaurant in particular (Fontanella Tea Garden) was supposed to be famous for its home made cakes.  Of course we made a bee line for it as soon as we were done with our tour.  We were not disappointed!  The furnishings and gardens were lovely.  There were water fountains and garden decorations all around.  Once seated, the view was spectacular.  Fontanella is right on the wall, so as you sit on the outside terrace, you can see the countryside for miles around.  Its beautiful.  Seated right next to us were two elderly ladies.  At first glance, I thought mother and daughter.  But as I watched them I noticed they both had bracelets from a tourist company.   Annette said they were from Switzerland.  (Since they were not speaking English, I couldn't eavesdrop LOL).  We decided they were just two world travelers like Annette and I.  We just couldn't get over how interesting the older one looked.  Her face was weathered, like she spent a great deal of time outdoors.  Her clothing and style were very simple, in sharp contrast to the younger woman who looked well to do.  I finally decided I had to take a picture of her, so I turned off the sound so they wouldn't hear it click and snapped a few shots.  One came out great. 

After lunch we went to visit some catacombs in the nearby city of Rabat.  The smaller of the two is St. Agatha's.  The martyr St Agatha is said to have hidden in these catacombs during the persecution of the Christians by the Roman Emperor Decius in 249 AD.  Annette’s friend used to be a guide, so she was interested to see if the new guide had different information.  The woman behind the counter (our tour guide) was feeding her two small children lunch and I had a bad feeling about the tour.  We had a look around the museum while we waited. It was small but interesting, with a large collection of pottery, minerals, gems, prehistoric fossils and more.  They even had a mummified crocodile from the Nile.  When it was time for the tour to begin the guide began bundling her kids up.  She asked them if they would rather stay in the office or come with her.  The little boy was about 4 and his sister about 6.  They were not cooperating and the other person waiting for the tour was beginning to roll her eyes.  She didn't speak English, only French, but we were communicating just fine!  When we got to the gate, the little boy insisted on turning the key so we had to wait while he played around with that.  From there it was all downhill.  As soon as we got in the main room and the guide began the tour, the kids began acting up.  She would get out one sentence to us and 3 or 4 to the kids.  She kept telling them to behave and be quiet or she was going to send them back upstairs.  You could tell her parenting style was based on empty threats because neither child even paused, but kept right on running around and whining and interrupting.  The French lady was fed up and demanded to leave. Part of the reason was the kids, but also because she came to take pictures of the fresco's in the main room and pictures were not allowed.  Of course while the guide was busy with her kids, I was snapping away.  Also she didn't speak English and the guide spoke only a little French.  I told Annette I would just as soon leave too, I didn't think we would get anything out of the tour except watching two kids run around.  She wanted to continue, so I followed along.  I think the guide really did have some good knowledge of the site and history, but about 70% of her comments were directed at the kids.  The daughter insisted on standing right in front of what she was trying to show us and talking and the boy cried to be carried or ran around.  All the while she begged and threatened them to be quiet.  I actually felt really sorry for her.  She was having a rough time and I assume she didn't have day care or she wouldn't have brought the kids to work with her.  In fact, on the way out she was talking to the little girl, but I'm sure it was for our benefit.  She was saying she didn't have daycare and if the kids couldn't behave, mom might lose her job and they really needed the money etc.  Its really a difficult situation, on the one hand, you felt bad for her as a mom having a bad day.  But as a consumer, I paid for a tour of a historic site, and what I got was stuck under ground with two ill behaved children. And I know parents out there will say, they were just being kids.  True enough, but there is a time and place for kids to run and play and this was not it! 

Anyway, the St Paul catacomb was just down the street and it was a self guided tour.  This catacomb is the largest and earliest  archaeological evidence of Christianity in Malta.  They date from the 2nd to 9th century AD.  These were utilized in Roman times to lay the dead to rest, as the Romans thought it unhygienic to bury the dead in the city.  The Catacombs were used later on by early Christians, who secretly met and celebrated mass in times when Christians were persecuted.  A characteristic feature of the catacombs in Malta is the `agape tables' hewn out of the rock. Here, mourners would hold a `wake' - probably a farewell meal - in honor of the deceased.  There were some differences between these catacombs and the ones in Italy.  One of course was the table, but each grave had an indentation where the head rested.  Also, these graves were much deeper indicating more than one person was buried there. It was interesting to be able to walk around and touch things. 

Our next outing was to the Malta Falconry Center.  http://www.maltafalconrycentre.com/.  This is a private center where they house many different species of birds of prey.  Some have been rescued from people wanting them as pets, some were bred at the facility and some were purchased from breeders.  Their stated goals are to re-introduce the ancient art of falconry in Malta, make educational and entertaining natural free flying displays with our well trained birds of prey, breed our captive birds on view to the public and to reintroduce native species of birds of prey to Malta.  The birds were beautiful and we got to handle many of them.  They had many different species of owls and the first one was a tiny owl that reminded me of the owl Pigwidgeon in the Harry Potter books. She was so sweet, I wanted one!  My other favorite was a fierce looking Bengal owl.  This one was a bit less cuddly but we got to hold and pet her as well.  They also had many different hawks, eagles and vultures.  We held many of them using a falconer glove and for such huge birds they were very light.  I got some great pictures while we were there.  It was just the two of us, so we had out own private tour and could take as much time as we liked. 

From the Falconry Center we decided to walk to the Blue Grotto.  It was a few miles away and the walk was a great way to see more of the countryside.  This area was much less populated and mostly farm land. The Blue Grotto is actually a number of sea caverns on the south coast of Malta.  The site is extremely popular, attracting some 100,000 tourists per year.  The site also features in the film Troy starring Brad Pitt. (that makes twice he's been to Malta, he just finish filming a movie here with his wife in November).  There is a massive arch and a system of six caves that were created by centuries of persistent action of the waves and the elements. The sky reflects the white sandy seabed, giving off a bright cobalt color while the caves mirror the orange, purple and green off the minerals in the rocks. This particular spectacle of colors can be seen from sunrise until around one in the afternoon.  We  didn't take the boat tour because the seas were pretty rough, but its on my long list of things to do.

Annette was kind enough to invite me out a few time with some friends she has made over the years and I'm happy to say I now have friends to hang out with.  One night we went to an Irish pub I had been to before called the Dubliner.  They had the best ribs ever and I was more then happy to go back there.  I met her friend Lynda who is British.  She brought along her sister in law Lisa who was Maltese.  It sounds like the beginning to a joke, but an American, a German, a Brit and a Maltese walk into an Irish pub...  We had the best time!  It felt like we had all been friends for years.  We had quite a good time with the food;  we ordered chicken quesadillas and it came with 'Irish guacamole'.  I knew it was a trick when it first arrived because it looked nothing like the consistency of avocados.  We all had a tiny taste and decided it was mashed peas!  Alrighty then, pass on that thanks.  Another night and another pub I learned the happy hour appetizers are called nibbles here.  I guess because you nibble at them.  At a different pub, they were free of charge.  No doubt because they made you thirsty and you drank more. 

Sadly it was soon time to say see ya later to Annette.  Her vacation was over and she had to go back to Germany and work.  I was back on my own, but I had business to attend to.  When I was in Italy I sent myself a package of household items I bought at the Navy base.  There was plenty of room in the box, so I added some American food that I couldn’t get in Malta.  Oh the aggravation that caused!  In addition to this box, my mother was sending me two boxes of things that wouldn't fit into my suitcase. I had a fourth box of my mail including medication from my mail order pharmacy. One box from my mom was delivered without incident.  The other ones had tracking numbers.  On 3 Jan the box from Italy departed the Malta airport (for the post office) and wound up in some black hole.  For 2 weeks I called and visited my local post offices and the main PO.  Each told me it wasn't on the island.  How did they explain the USPS scan at the Malta Airport?  "Someone was playing a trick on me".  I swear those were the customer care representatives words!  Eventually I spent 45 min on an overseas phone call to the USPS who put a trace on the box.  12 hours later it magically appeared in the MaltaPost tracking system.   From there I watched it, in both systems, 'clear customs' and show 'attempted delivery'.  After a week of waiting, I again visited and called the main PO.  This time I was told 'cleared customs' and 'attempted delivery' doesn't really mean 'cleared customs' and 'attempted delivery'.  It meant the box went to a secret place called 'PHO', waiting for a doctor to examine the food.  Apparently this secret place had no phone and even the customer care people (in the same office with customs ) couldn't tell me where 'PHO' was or how to get in touch with them.  My local post office was just about as aggravated as I was.  The clerk was all but yelling at someone in Maltese.  I didn't know exactly what she was saying but I sure got the gist of it.  By this time the 2nd package from my mom also showed 'attempted delivery' but they couldn’t find that one either.  They kept inferring that my address might not be visible.  My street, the only one with its name, is only about 3 blocks long.  The street numbers start in the 100's at the bottom of the hill and mine is #6, near the top.  I know this because of the big black #6 on the wall near my door.  Karla owns several of the buildings around me and also nailed up big black numbers #5 and #7, also by their doors.  On the other side of us are other numbers, like #4 and #8.  You get the pictures right?  Eventually I got one delivery notice in my mail slot that said the package with my medications had arrived but I had to present prescriptions for the medications. I printed off what I had from the mail order pharmacy and presented them to the main office.  This was after I went to the local office where the notice said the package was.  Of course it wasn't there, they never had it.  Can I just mention, the bus ride to the main office is just over an hour?  They didn't like the paperwork I had from my pharmacy, which admittedly wasn’t exactly a full prescription but it did have a the same information.  They said I need to find a Maltese Dr to write the prescriptions.  OK that is a problem for another day.  They did let me open that box and take everything but the meds. By this time I was really pissed about the other two packages though.  I was at the main PO and customs, but they couldn't tell me where the packages were other then at the PHO.  The next day I checked the status and one now showed 'Departure from Office of Exchange Beat ID R03'.  I was told that meant it was on the truck and would be delivered today.  Well 2 days later, no package so I filled out a complaint form.  The next day the package from Italy said the same thing, but still no delivery.  I made the now daily trek to the local office and the clerk did some more yelling and told me the package would be in his office the following day. When I walked in, I could see a beat up box that was falling apart.  The brown paper was torn almost all the way off and there was a gaping hole in the top.  I found this oddly encouraging.  When both clerks saw me in the back of the line, they smiled at me.  Success at last!  They had managed to track down both boxes and indeed the mangled one was mine.  What started out as a very sturdy box that had been wrapped with two layers of brown paper and sealed with at least half a roll of wrapping tape, literally broke open when I picked it up.  The contents spilled all over the floor but at last it had arrived!  Luckily I had brought along a rolling bag to get them home, and I was now one happy camper!  It had been so long since I saw the box from Italy, it was like a present almost.  It was also nice to get the other box from my Mom of course.  That box I had also been anxiously awaiting because it had the books I needed to finish my English as a Second Language course.  First thing next week, I have to work on finding a doctor.

 

 

Link to Pictures:

https://plus.google.com/photos/118205599704530902363/albums/6108036963860688785?authkey=CMC7u8yqm4XIhwE