On a mission with an egg

Our second full day on the island (third overall) we were given an assignment. We were split into groups of 2 or 3 and given an egg. We were told to trade the egg with a Gozitan for something exceptional in return. It was like a competition to see who could get the best gift. We were each given a different town on Gozo where we were to go to do our task.

Hannah L was my partner and we were given Gharb as our town to explore. It's on the Western part of Gozo, inland but still close to the water like everything is here (which I love).

Photo credit to Hannah

We had some interesting experiences heading to Gharb. We walked to Victoria which is always a good way to meet new people. Hannah discovered a small art studio where an elderly man (in his 80's or 90's easily) had a wax exhibit. It took him a couple months to make an entire village from wax and it has kept for 10 years. He invited people to come in and see his work and Hannah and I were fascinated by it. He did not speak any English except for "wax" and "yes" so it was hard to talk to him. However, a woman from Gozo who lived in Michigan for 20 years happened to stop in and she translated for us. We talked with her for a while, she gave us a hug when she was ready to go and was so kind to us. Hannah and I went back to say hello to the man and he gave us both a wax figure he had made. Even though we didn't speak the same language we still made a nice bond with him.

We then took the bus to Gharb from Victoria (you can get to any town in Gozo from Victoria). Above is what the public buses look like. They are so nice! Most have AC and they are spacious. Apparently they are very new and until recently the buses looked like this:

Picture from http://studentsblog.skola.edu.mt/tag/gozo/

They definitely have character and I wish I could have experienced them. Sometimes convenience wins over, though, despite my anthropological instincts to experience something different than what I'm used to.

On the bus we met a woman who was heading to the town next to Gharb. She told us a few places to visit in the area (like the craft village and a beach). She noticed the egg I was holding and asked about it. We told her about our assignment, but she laughed and joked with us and said "you don't need an egg to break the ice in Gozo, people will talk to you whether you have an egg to give them or not!" Then she said "that is a strange assignment.. Students here do research projects and write papers..." We agreed with her that it was quite strange and we didn't have time to explain our research projects before she had to get off the bus. Oh well she'll just think that anthropology students and incredibly strange, which is quite accurate.

When we eventually go to Gharb it was a quiet town, but we passed by a man outside his door so we decided to try out our assignment. His name was Tony and we started chatting with him then told him we had an egg to trade with him. He was smiling at us like he was amused and thought we were kind of crazy. His wife, Elizabeth, came out of the house and we talked to her about the egg. They kept asking us what we wanted for it, but we really had no idea. So we asked for something traditionally Gozitan. She knew just the thing! She gave us traditional Gozitan goat cheese and crackers.

We had eaten the cheese on our first night here at our apartments because the staff bought some for us but we were still thankful of their gift. They told us what to do in Gharb and sent us on our way.

Our first stop was Ta Pinu:



Ta' Pinu is the most treasured of Gozo churches and that is saying something because there are A LOT. One in every town, at least.

According to Malta Bubl.com "Built in the 1920s, the impressive basilica which you see today is built on the site of a chapel where it is believed that a Gozitan woman, Carmela Grima, heard the Virgin Mary speak to her in 1883." As you can see, it's beautiful.



Then the craft village where we saw some talented individuals:

This man is blowing glass. I love meeting the people who make what's being sold. This factory was a part of the store, it was very cool. The glass was absolutely gorgeous. There was also handmade lace and sweaters, paintings, silver and pottery at the craft village. Along with homemade Gozitan treats. I'll be going back there because I didn't want to buy too much stuff so early in the trip.. I'll go back and take some pictures of the beautiful crafts don't worry!

We ended our trip (of course) in Xlendi. I'll never get over how beautiful it is.



 

We hiked around the cliffs and found some amazing views

Exploring our surroundings

On our first full day on Gozo my roommate and I decided to explore the area. My roommates are Hannah (from London) and Sabrina (from Quebec). It is easy to walk to Victoria from any town in Gozo because it is in the center:

So we walked to Victoria from Xlendi which took about 40 minutes, we took our time.

Victoria is a beautiful capital. I was surprised to see how empty it was, but it was also kind of nice to walk down streets such as the one above.

We went into a lace shop because we had all heard that Gozitan lace is very nice. This woman makes all the lace in her shop and it is beautiful. Something like the piece above would take months of constant work. She learned when she was 5 and is now 85! She has taught her nieces because she has no children, but hopes to keep the tradition alive. Not many young people want to learn the task because it is so time consuming and you have to have a lot of patience.

She showed us how she does it. This is a simple pattern, but it uses 8 different spools of thread to make. I've seen women using 30 spools of thread at a time! They're so talented... They move them over and under each other and use pins to help them direct the thread. They can do it so fast and it's incredibly delicate material.

She told us men do not do lace, only women and most women who do lace also do knitting. This woman had many beautiful sweaters in her shop as well.

Next we walked around the capital. This is a view of the citadella from the street. The citadella is on a hill in the middle of Gozo and is the center of Victoria. It's played an important role in Gozo's history.

This is the view from the citadella. It's a cloudy day but still such a beautiful country.

Yummy food in Victoria for 4 Euro :)

We ended our journey at Xlendi Bay near where we are living. I cannot wait to explore the waters of Gozo. I am so lucky to be studying in such a beautiful place.

First day on the island

The day I arrived in the Maltese Islands was an adventure. It was my first time really traveling far on my own with a connection flight and I was nervous but also confident. I made a friend on my first flight from Dulles to Frankfurt and we both really wanted to try a German beer, but it was 5 am in Frankfurt and everywhere we went was only serving breakfast :/ Maybe next time. I then had a 3 hour layover until my flight to Malta. That all went well then I had to find myself to the ferry and from the ferry I met up with a professor from the program. 

I hadn't slept 24 hours when I arrived, but I wanted to make the most of my day! We ended up going to a farm animals blessing festival in a nearby town. A priest came by to bless all the animals that were out in the town square. There was a marching band and a talent show afterwards, it was very nice. Here is what I saw throughout the afternoon/evening:

This man with his beloved parrot. Farm animals consisted of pets and animals for labor and eating as well. I missed a picture of him clapping but he was clapping and singing to make his parrot dance and the parrot was having a good time entertaining all of us.

Beautiful horses live on Gozo. Horse racing in carts like this are very popular here.

These kids did a song from Avenue Q (a bit questionable at first but it turned out cute). The view behind them is of the valley which is gorgeous and there were many other performers throughout the evening, very talented kids.

We walked home from the town to our town. It was a half an hour walk and it was very nice. To the left of this picture you can see Victoria which is the capital of Gozo. It sits on a hill in the center of the island so you can see it from any town and get to it easily from anywhere on the island.

This is the view from the roof of our apartments. Gorgeous. Anytime of day you can go up there and be mesmerized. We live so close to a gorgeous bay. Pictures of that shortly no worries.

We call the flat roof of our apartments the Baroof because it is a combination of a bar and a roof. We eat and drink up there all night. Dinner starts at 8 and we take turns cooking or staff cooks for us, we occasionally will go out. The food here is amazing. But it is hard to stay away from things I should stay away from like cheese and carbs. I will not worry for the next three weeks tho. Food is an important part of culture and that is what I am here to study right..

I tried to go to bed early the first night but it was difficult because we have some very interesting conversations on the Baroof after hours with our wine, beer, sangria, food, etc. Anthropologists make for good company.

One small country to another.

I am abroad again! It is no surprise to me... I have the travel bug, diagnosed by me.

This time I am to an even smaller country believe it or not.

This is a map of the islands in comparison to Europe. Do not worry you are not going blind: yes you can barely see them.

I found out about these small island countries through the anthropology department at my school. I am participating in an applied anthropology field school called Off the Beaten Track. It is located on Gozo, part of the Maltese Islands in the Mediterranean. The three islands are Malta, Gozo and Comino with Malta being the main larger island, Gozo being the smaller and quieter island and Comino being the smallest with not many inhabitants. All of the islands are strongly Roman Catholic and it is an important aspect of the culture of the area. You will be learning much more about the culture as the blog progresses.

Here is a map of all three islands. Valleta is the capital of Malta (Mdina used to be the capital) and Victoria is the capital of Gozo.

Fun fact: Mdina was used for filming in the HBO series Game of Thrones. It was used as the location of Kings Landing!!

As you can see in the first picture, the islands are off the coast of Sicily. They are very close to Northeast Africa, the Middle East and Southern Europe and have a rich history of many different conquestors therefore their culture is influenced by many different places.

I will not go into the rich history of the Maltese islands in this post but if you wish to know more please go to this website. To sum it up a bit, the islands were inhabited first in 4500 BC and are home to the oldest temples in the world. In 1200 BC the Phoenicians took over the island through the expansion of their trade. In 218 BC (after many wars) Malta was under the Roman empire. After this ruling Arabs came to Malta (roughly 870 AD) and this is known as a dark time in Maltese history. This is when Islam came to the islands and challenged their strong Catholic background. Arab physical influence remained intact in Malta until 1224 even though Normans took over Malta in 1090. Arabic influences in Maltese culture are still prominent. The Knights of St. John have played a very important role in Maltese history because they eradicated Muslim rule in the country and rebuilt the city. Turks had taken over the city and forced the population into slavery in 1547. The Knights of St. John are known throughout the islands to be heros.

The Maltese cross.

Malta has so much history it would take forever for me to do any of it justice. The Maltese people have played prominent roles in World Wars and other aspects of history so it is worth researching.

To give a present example of outside influences on Malta, the Maltese language has influences in Arabic, but with a latin alphabet so it is different than anything I've ever heard before and it is hard to pick up on. For example the town I am staying in on Gozo is named Xlendi but it is pronounced Shlendi.

Kif inti (pronounces like it is spelt with an emphasis on the i on inti) means "how are you" and is a common greeting. Many people on Gozo and Malta (especially Malta) speak English. It makes it a lot easier to conduct our fieldwork in three weeks that we do not have to learn a whole new language. People on the islands are very friendly and are very easy to strike up a conversation with.

So what will I be doing here exactly?
Good question.

There are thirteen students here from the US, England, Belgium and Canada. We each have the opportunity to design our own research project and conduct field work in three weeks on Gozo. I am still working out what I want to do exactly... So are many others. We only just got settled it on June 2nd. I am thinking of possibly working with refugees. Malta is quite close to northern Africa and many north African refugees find Malta as a home. However, Malta has not been very welcoming to them... I still have to research this topic further and see how plausible it is to do my work in three weeks. Ideally I would interview refugees to record their experiences and then natives of Gozo as well in order to get their opinion on immigration law.

Wish me luck!

Don't worry my next blog post will be a bit more interesting and have many more pictures of these beautiful islands.