Merhba

The Shipps' visit to Malta

2006-01-30T19:18:00.000+01:00

We were so blessed to have our dear friends, Josh & Sarah Shipp, stop by our little island home while they vacationed in London. They were only able to stay for the weekend, but we had a fabulous time! The weather was mostly rainy, so we opted for staying in with vino, cheese, and a deck of cards. We even invented a new game called "Maltese Contract" (a version of Contract, or Oh Hell). We were very much revived and encouraged by their visit, and we can't wait to see them again in San Jo.

Check out some photos here: Shipps Slipknot Time Malta Tour 2006

(PS - We also added Thanksgiving 2005 photos!)

Ho-Ho? Ha! Happy New Year!

2006-01-02T12:33:00.000+01:00

Well this Christmas day was pretty much the worst one we’ve ever had. I mean, Christmas in general was wonderful. The weather has been lovely, our families gave us very generous gifts, and it has been very special for us to have only each other to hold on to this year. But Christmas day itself was a real bomb.

It all started first thing in the morning. We had made a chocolate pudding the night before. Jessica was going to teach children’s church and it was going to be a special treat for the kids. But there’s no instant pudding to be found on this island, so we had to try to make the kind that you boil and let sit overnight. Well, the pudding didn’t have the same thing in mind, apparently. It didn’t set at all. So when we woke up on Sunday morning we only had a big pot of slightly thick chocolate milk. And like the fool that he is, Ben said, “Well, if we start the day this early with something going wrong, then we can only go up from here!” Yeah right!

So we rushed like mad to leave the house. Not only did we need to find an open convenience store and hunt for a pudding alternative, but we had to get to the other side of the island to pick up a woman and her daughter who needed a ride to church. We picked up both and headed to church, but halfway there we got a flat tire. Now, Ben had just replaced a leaky tire the Monday before and hadn’t yet got a new spare. (Six years of driving in CA and I’ve never had a flat. But within six months in Malta, I’ve had four.) Stranded and embarrassed, we had to wait for someone from church to come and pick us all up.

Finally we made it to church, pleasantly surrounded by the family of God. It was pretty much the only good part of the day. Afterwards, someone gave us a ride back to the car and dropped us off with a spare tire as well. We were on our own for the rest of the day.

The afternoon was slow. Jessica took a nap and Ben played games on the computer. But Jessica woke up from her nap in the early evening with a real bad case of the shivers. The weather’s never terribly cold, but the houses here have zero insulation, and the humid air sends the coldness straight to your bones. She couldn’t stop shaking, so we cranked up the propane heater. Now we had been warned of the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning with this type of heater, but Jessica was freezing so we decided to sit her right in front of it on full blast. It cured the shivers, but the direct fumes from the heater made her nauseous. She got sick to her stomach. We turned off the heater, bundled her up, and sipped water slowly. Dinner was late on Christmas night as we waited for her appetite to return.

In the evening we talked with our families on the phone and shared pictures over the internet. Our families were at Ben’s uncle and aunt’s house for Christmas. It was wonderful to talk with them all together, except for the end of the conversation, “Okay, kids. We miss you but we have to go open presents now. Merry Christmas!” We tried not to feel overly depressed. But the day really stunk.

But then fast forward to New Year’s Eve… the best New Years we’ve ever had! We were invited to a black tie dinner gala by a friend in the church whose uncle is part of the Lion’s club here on Malta. It was outstanding! It was held at the luxurious Casino Maltese. There was our friend and her boyfriend, two of her cousins, one of whom brought a girlfriend, and another young couple from the church. The nine of us sat at a table together with our friend’s mother, and I think we were the only people there under 40, maybe even 50. But don’t get me wrong, those older folks really know how to party. There was plenty of champagne, silly party hats, noise makers, and great live music.

There was one appetizer of wild boar with pear chutney, and another of bacon wrapped prawns. Then some pink champagne sorbet to cleanse the palette before the arrival of the filet mignon that was wrapped in filo and topped with wild mushroom sauce. Mm-mm!

We counted down to midnight on the dance floor. Balloons fell all around us and were popped loudly by dancing merry-makers. Everyone gave the classic European kiss on the two cheeks of anyone standing nearby and said, “Is-sena tajba!” There was more music and dancing for the next two hours, and things were just winding down when we left.

We’d never imagined that New Years could be so fun! Click here to check out the pictures we posted on our gallery. We hope your Christmas was much better and your New Years was even half as fun as ours were. May God bless you with the nearness of His presence in 2006!

PICTURES!!

2005-12-10T13:14:00.000+01:00

Hey everybody, yes. We really are in Malta, and we have the pictures to prove it!

Since we've got our new fancy-schmancy DSL line, we've been able to talk and email with our family a lot more, and we've really enjoyed the picture sharing. So we decided to jump online and put together a picture gallery for all of you.

Now we've just started, so you'll only find pictures for June and July. But we'll add more soon, and post a reminder on this blog. In the mean time, you can check out pictures from our first two months. This picture here is actually from Thanksgiving.

Let us know what you think, and please send us pictures of yourselves too!

(none of the pictures on this page or in the picture gallery have been modified. we are actually this beautiful/handsome)

But Jesus, I thought we were playing hide & seek...

2005-11-30T09:37:00.000+01:00

Ever feel like you're playing hide & seek with Jesus? Blindfolded?

We've been spending a great deal of our time here finding Jesus. Notice we didn't say "trying to find Jesus." We know where He is - His Word tells us everything we need to know about Him. But oddly enough, that doesn't always reach our hearts. Interpreting His Word can get sticky, and people have all sorts of ideas about who He is exactly.

Thankfully we know who He's not, and sometimes seeing that reminds us that we might actually know a little bit about Him.

So, here's a glimpse of who Jesus isn't: Vintage 21. It's making our rainy Maltese days a whole lot more bearable . Click on the movie reel at the top left, then "videos." Page 2 has four videos that we think are hilarious. 1 and 3 are our favorites. Oh, and all props go to Missy for introducing us to this new world of hilarious quotes for everyday life.

"I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." NLT John 8:12

The Future is Now!!

2005-11-27T21:25:00.000+01:00

Soon every American home will connect their television, phone and computer.You will be able to visit the Louvré on one channel, or watch female mudwrestling on another.You can do your shopping at home, or play Mortal Kombat with a friend in Vietnam!There's no end to the possibilities!

We've got DSL!! Finally we have fast, convenient, and reliable internet access. We know we haven't blogged in a long time. We hope you can forgive us. We've been a little proccupied with life and learning. And finding the time (non-peak hours of course) to sign on and post something interesting at 32kbps really stinks. But now we have no more excuses. Since we can roll out of bed and check our e-mail in our underwear, you can be sure that we'll be bloggin' again as well. I realize we run the risk of becoming the couple that cried "we'll blog." But hey, we gotta try. For the next couple of weeks at least I'm sure you'll be interested since we've got a lot of material.

For now, an update: We've got DSL! (did I say that already?) So please, please, pretty please with a cherry on top, get in touch with us. We've got Yahoo! Messenger for IMing, and Skype for internet calls. Both are easy and free (and reliably connected now that we've got DSL!!)
Other developments since our last post include the settlement of our plans to return to Cali in the Spring. We don't have a return date or anything, but at least we're sure we'll come home then. If you didn't know, we came to Malta with an open-ended mindset as to how long we'll stay. But various things have led us to start thinking and praying, and we feel God has made it clear that our original one year committment will be just right. But don't ask what we're gonna do when we get home, 'cause we don't know yet.

Ah! Winter is settling in here in Malta. The sun is actually obstructed by some puffy grey things every now and then, and they drop water a couple times a week too. And that red stuff in the thermometer isn't at the top anymore. They say this'll last for a couple of months and then things'll be back to normal.

Oh yeah! Happy Thanksgiving! We really missed all our family, but we distracted ourselves successfully by cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner for 20 Maltese people. We did a pretty good job, we suppose. Everybody loved it, but then again they've never had a Thanksgiving dinner to compare it with. The turkey was a little dry, but the flavor was good. And that was actually the first Thanksgiving dinner we've ever made, so we kinda threw ourselves in the deep end with this one. It was a blast, and helped us not to be too homesick.

Well, we'll leave you with that for now. We've got more notes about life in Malta and pictures coming up too. So give us another shot and check in next week.

(And for all those who could identify the opening movie quote - give yourself 3 extra points.)

Update

2005-08-17T18:35:00.000+02:00

Well we’ve been kinda out of touch for the last couple of weeks, and hadn’t posted anything for a couple of weeks before that. Also we’re at the three month mark, which means that ¼ of our originally planned trip is already over. So we figure it’s time for an actual update on things. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of anecdotes about life in Malta to come.

First of all, we’d thought that we would get more responses on the last post, so we left it alone for a couple of weeks hoping to get more input. But then we had a visitor arrive and there was no time for further posts. Safiye, one of our bestest friends in the whole wide world, came to stay for almost two and a half weeks. It was a blast! Not only did we do all kinds of fun stuff like a day of swimming in the Blue Lagoon and lunch in Mdina with a view of the entire island, but we also spent lots of time just chatting and encouraging one another. It was very hard to say good-bye, and we’re now even more convinced that everyone needs to come and visit us! If you’ve got time for vacation, and friends in Malta, you’d better take the opportunity to have a personal tour guide on a Mediterranean isle. (we won’t mention any names, but someone with a broccoli flavored lamp shade comes to mind)

Another piece of great news is that Ben got a job! He’s teaching English at a small, new school called The Chamber College. It’s not a real college, as in a tertiary institution that can issue a degree. It’s just one of about three dozen official EFL schools in Malta. He’s currently teaching an upper-intermediate level of 8-12 students, a job that’s about 4 hours a day. The students are from Japan, Germany, Spain, Poland, Turkey, Italy, and China; most are teens, several in their twenties, and occasionally one or two in their thirties. He’s having a lot of fun, and in the words of his high school English teacher, “I can’t believe they pay me to do this!”

So after the fun of the last couple of weeks and with a real job, we’re finally settling down to a regular routine. Life in Malta is great! Although a visitor from home has made us home-sick all the more, so…

P.E.P.

2005-08-17T18:30:00.000+02:00

Malta is a very international community that thrives on tourism. Still, here in the heart of the beautiful Mediterranean, there are many who are under-privileged. Postcards, for example, stand on every street corner just begging for a chance to travel and see the world. Because of this, benefactors Ben and Jessica Van Meter have instituted a fund to help these poor postcards reach their dreams. It’s called the Postcard Exchange Program. For just 22 Maltese cents, they can send a postcard to live with a loving family in the United States. But they need your help. This program only works by exchanging postcards between both host families in both countries. If you will join us by sponsoring a postcard of your own and sending it to Malta, then you will also take part in the rewarding experience of receiving a postcard from this picturesque country. Please don’t hesitate. Join us in making the world a better place. Write now. (Details below)

Thank you,
Ben and Jessica Van Meter

Instructions:
Simply send a postcard to Ben and/or Jessica at our address here in Malta. If you don’t know our address, just email us and we’ll be happy to tell you. Then in 4 to 6 weeks, you’ll receive a very happy and grateful little postcard of your very own. Your postcard should meet one or more of the following requirements:
1. Funny
2. Inspiring
3. Touristy (aka – the Golden Gate or Yosemite)
4. Really Really Funny
5. Completely Random
6. None of the above

What's in a Name?

2005-07-19T13:50:00.000+02:00

For those of you who haven’t yet sent us a care package (which should include a six-pack of Dr. Pepper, bottled Starbucks Frapuccino’s, and bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos) you may not be familiar with the proper way to address your postage. One of the cool and interesting things about walking the streets of Malta is that the houses don’t usually have street numbers… they have names!

A lot of the houses have names that are creative and sweet. Our pastor, for example, named his beautiful house Christine, after his beautiful wife. Another house we saw on our way to the beach was given the pleasant name Sea Breeze. And then the majority of houses are named after favorite saints like St. Catherine, St. Anthony, etc. But then there’s those crazy folk who try to get a little too creative, if you know what I mean. So Jessica and I kept track of our 5 favorite house names. Here they are:

5. Miami Flats – Hmm. Our flight was pretty long. It took us half-way around the world. I could’ve sworn we weren’t in Miami anymore. Maybe that’s where Don Johnson disappeared to…

4. Antmar &…

3. Josmel – These are just two examples of a sad, recurring pattern in house names. The idea is to combine the names of the couple living within. So if Jessica and I were to buy a house, we would call it Benjes. I know… blech! These houses are named after Anthony and Maria, and Joseph and Melissa, who apparently just don’t get it.

2. Blaze of Glory – I laughed out loud too. Don’t these people realize that they’re going down?

1. Daddy – I don’t think we need to explain. That’s just weird.

We have invented several games to play as we drive around, inspired by these house names. For instance, we come up with names that are subtly anti-British, like Lexington and Concord, or Plymouth Rock. We’ve also laughed at what our friends and families would have to name their houses, like Gerjan, Davnic, Rusreb, and Skiptreas. Our most favorite game is obscure house names. Our top two choices were Count Dooku and Lafawnduh. Waddya think? In fact, we’re doing our first reader poll: if you could name your house something funny or creative, what would it be? Just leave a comment below.

European Idol

2005-07-11T18:00:00.000+02:00

Inquiring minds want to know: what exactly is music like for Ben and Jessica in Malta?

It's safe to assume that we hear Hollaback Girl about 12 times a day, but we were introduced to something new that I'm sure you folks back home have heard little about. Our first week here, as we wondered in angst about whether it was Bo, Carrie, or Vonzell that would become the next American Idol, we found something else to make us sit for long, unrecoverable hours in front of the TV: Eurovision.

Apparently, all of Europe has been getting together and voting for their favorite singers too, only they've been doing it for the last 50 years! A few twists though: each country sends their winner to the final round, which takes place all in one night, and the voting has more to do with politics than who is actually the best.

You can check out 30 second sound bites of each of the contestants here (just click on the multimedia lounge and go to audio). Our top 5 favorites were Denmark, Israel, Switzerland, Norway, and of course, the winner, Greece. So check it out if you're curious and have a moment. We're warning you though, don't expect any of the others to really be any good at all.

ir-Raba’ ta’ Lulju (the 4th of July)

2005-07-05T17:30:00.000+02:00

You know that riddle that asks if there’s a 4th of July in England? Of course, the answer is yes, but they don’t celebrate it. Well, there’s a 4th of July in Malta too, but they didn’t seem to make that big a deal either (it is, after all, a former British colony).

But have no fear! Jessica and I did our best to pump up the festive spirit and celebrate. Here’s how our day went:

First, we set out nice and early to go to the beach. We went with Christine Agius, the pastor’s wife, and the Agius boys, Michael, David, and Mark. We met up with another family from the church at a beach called Ġnejna (juh-nay-nuh). It’s a great beach with rust-colored sand and a view of Gozo. We hopped right in the water, and the locals gave both Jessica and I high-fives. Although Jessica kinda caught it on the back of her hand, and I got it on the side of mine. It stung for quite some time. We were touched by their sentiments, or maybe it was just their tentacles. After all, the locals I’m talking about were jellyfish. Clear-ish, purply brown, about as big around as a tea cup, with 3 to 4 inch tentacles. I’m actually kind of glad that we both got stung. I wouldn’t have wanted Jessica to get all the high-fives alone. It wasn’t too bad, felt almost exactly like a bee sting.

The sun really started beating down at noon while I was playing soccer with the boys, so we decided to pack it up. And back in town, Jessica and I decided to lay low in our apartment during the heat of the day. There were great firecrackers going on outside. Mostly big BOOMs from cherry bombs and a few loud CRACKLE-POPS from those kinds that are all strung together. At least it’s not as if the firecrackers were going on directly behind our backyard or anything. And we weren’t at all extremely annoyed that it kept us from our nap. And I’m sure they were in honor of America and had nothing whatsoever to do with the festivals celebrating the local patron saint. It was a pleasant afternoon.

Then in the evening, we decided to head out to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. It was crowded in Paceville, where all the cool nightclubs are, but not more so than usual. It was just crowded enough to make parking a slightly stressful ordeal. When we got to the restaurant, the host politely informed us that the kitchen had closed early. Of course! Trying to be helpful he continued, “We close it early every Monday. In case you’re here on holiday.” NOW we know, but what good would that do if we were on holiday? Was he trying to tell us, “Next year, plan your vacation in Malta for Tuesday through Sunday”? Instead, we went across the way to a restaurant called OutWest, which is an Argentine steak house with an Aussie flavor (for those of you who are planning to open a steak restaurant and can’t decide the ethnic theme, you should be taking notes). It said Argentine Steakhouse on the door, beside which there stood a 6 foot cardboard cowboy, and there was kangaroo steak on the menu too. The food was really good, but we went back to the Hard Rock Café for lunch today ‘cause all I really wanted was the buffalo wings and a margarita.

We topped off the night with some Ben & Jerry’s sitting along the water’s edge, and finally got some recognition as a tipsy celebrant did a nails-on-chalkboard rendition of “Happy Birthday” to America in a nearby karaoke bar. At least someone besides the two of us was in the mood! So, we join that guy in saying…

Happy 229th, America!! Don’t worry; you don’t look a day over 180.

Best Before End

2005-07-01T21:00:00.000+02:00

So our friend Jean mentioned the other day that his silencer was being repaired. We sympathized, because you don’t want something like that making a big racket late at night while people are trying to sleep. Needless to say, we would definitely ask Jean where he took his silencer if we needed to get ours fixed. There are shops all over that advertise that they could do the job, but we’d definitely want to use someone we could trust. We might even ask Pastor Joe where he would go if his silencer needed repair.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking. “Whoa, Pastor Joe has a silencer? I knew that they were just off the coast of Sicily, but geez!” Well, sorry to disappoint any who were anxious to hear about Ben and Jessica’s Mafioso Escapades, but in Malta, what they call a “silencer” you in the States might know better as a “muffler.”

This is just one of the many funny situations that has led us to a profound insight: We aren’t just learning Maltese, we’re learning English.

The first clue to this revelation happened 4 years ago when I was first studying in Malta. I found out by accident that there was no school the next day because of some undoubtedly important national holiday (it may have been the feast of Saint Paul or something). Without skipping a beat she asked if I would be having a lion the next day.

“A what?”
“A Lion.”
“Uh….”

Obviously there was some aspect of Maltese culture that had escaped me. Was she talking about the popular candy bar, Nestle Lion, that was perhaps ritualistically consumed on feasts of particular saints? Or maybe there was a custom involving displaying lions to show your support of the local saint. I was SO confused.

After further clarification I realized that she had said “lie-in,” not “lion.” Of course, I immediately made the connection between “having a lie-in” and “sleeping in,” as is the American English way of saying things. But I have to admit that I was afraid for a moment that I would have to ask someone where I could buy a lion if all of the shops were going to be closed for the holiday…

Clue number two: the milk. What is the most important piece of information on the milk carton in your fridge? Yes, yes, homogenization and pasteurization are important, I agree. But those of you who said “the expiration date” can take the day off work. Go ahead, tell your boss I said it’s alright.

Good ol’ “best before --/--/--.” You might even dig further back in the fridge at Safeway to find those newer milks, you know, the ones that are fresh off the delivery truck and don’t expire until next month. But imagine our confusion one morning as we were eating our Frosties, when we gazed innocently at the top of the milk carton and discovered the words “best before end.” Our mouths hung open in disbelief and our Frosties slowly grew soggy. When was the end? The end as in, the end of the week? The end of the month? The end of the world? Would the milk truly last until Armageddon? How on earth would we be able to find out when this “end” was, and would we be able consume the milk before then? Our minds searched desperately for the answer.

Now let me explain something here. There was a date under “best before end.” We knew that this was all just a weird way of saying “best when consumed before --/--/--.” But we had to laugh at how it was ever so slightly “off the mark” from what we would have said using our own English. That’s because we’re not talking about funny translations of Japanese or Lithuanian into English, we’re talking about an entirely different English: British English. And it’s different enough in some spots to make you say, “huh?”

We’re not the only ones scratching our heads. Jean had no idea what we were talking about when we said that the faucets weren’t working. His English wife Sally, who fortunately has read her share of Jackie Collins novels, had to explain to him that by faucets we meant the taps. And Sally certainly won’t ever let us forget the time we asked if we could stop by since we were “in the neighborhood,” because apparently that is another phrase peculiar to American English.

If you know us, you know how much we love to learn languages. So you’ll also understand that this has all been a bit of unexpected fun for us. Look forward to more of our adventures in learning English; we hope to have more examples in the future for your amusement.

End.

When Close to Rome...

2005-06-22T23:15:00.000+02:00

So there are these broken strips of pavement in Malta, which I wouldn’t exactly call streets. There are also these funny shaped boxes with motors, which I wouldn’t exactly call cars. And altogether, driving in Malta is quite an adventure.

First of all, the roads are crazy bad. Even the locals say that they all love off-roading, ‘cause that’s the only kind of driving there is. And we joke about going into town to go four-wheelin’. I mean, it wouldn’t be so bad if there weren’t those pesky pieces of pavement between the potholes.

We recently moved closer to town and we’re glad to be doing less driving. On the way out to our previous place there was a sign that said “Pavement Experiment In Progress 100M Ahead”, and then it was like floating on air. The pavement was dark black and smoother than hot snot on wet doorknob. I felt like rolling down the window and shouting, “IT’S WORKING!!” But the fact that this beautifully smooth strip of tarmac was only 50 yards long and the only of its kind makes me feel that nobody would care.

Fact is, Malta is pretty much a big limestone rock stickin’ out of the Mediterranean. On a nearby construction site we can see that after six inches of dry, pebbly top-soil, you hit solid rock. The only possible way to run pipes in the ground is to carve out a trench in the street and then fill ‘er in and patch ‘er up. And the look of the streets makes me feel that there never were original roads, just patches, each one beside or on top of the other. The sidewalks are actually worse. But at least I’m not worried about denting my tennis shoes like I am about the rims of our Škoda.

This wonderful family in the church loaned us their extra car. They were going to scrap it, but instead renewed the registration when they heard we needed one. It’s a Czechoslovakian made car called a Škoda Favorit (no, I didn’t miss an e, it doesn’t have one). We’ve affectionately named our car Emil, after the shrink, Dr. Emil Skoda, on one of our favorit shows, Law & Order. Please pray for Emil; he has a bad drinking habit and gets hot under the collar pretty quick. Pray not only for our sakes, but so that this wonderful family from the church won’t be bothered by these needy foreigners too much.

In all, we really love and appreciate our car. And it seems everyone else does too, ‘cause almost one in five other vehicles seem to be the same make and model. Every car here is extremely compact and they have that funny, European look like boxes with the corners rounded off. In our four weeks here we’ve seen two, count ‘em, two SUV’s. The funniest sight was to see a tiny, two-door hatch back towing a ginormous, twin-engine speed boat. There’s simply not room for big vehicles. On an island of 350,000 people, there are 250,000 cars.

In the last couple of years the government has been going like crazy in making streets one-way so that there’s room for the citizens to park. Of course this makes navigation a wonderful, marriage-building exercise. People have several times told us, “Don’t worry. You’re never lost in Malta. You’re always still in Malta.” It’s true; it is a relief to know that we’re never too far away. But even on this small island, it’s amazing how lost you can get. Let me put it this way: We have a book thick as a novel of road maps of Malta. It’s called The Maze. I rest my case.

Of course, the most amazing part of driving is the flow of traffic. I think there must be rules of the road, but either no one knows or cares about them. On a few streets, someone has painted something with faint resemblance to a line down the middle of the road, but it’s apparently just a suggestion. “Um… you might want to lend some thought to keeping most of your car on this side.” But the people have a saying of their own, “Drive in the shade.” I also haven’t figured out if the speed limits have any affect on traffic. I’ve seen folks rumbling along the freeway at frustrating speeds of 25 miles per hour, while others hurdle down narrow alleys at 60. And it seems that the horn is practically used as a gesture of good will, and that the Maltese are very amiable drivers. Oh well! When close to Rome…

Give to Weasel what is Weasel’s

2005-06-12T22:35:00.000+02:00

One thing that’s taking a bit of getting used to here in Malta is the money. The Maltese currency is the Lira, like in Italy, but they often call it a Pound, like in England. It’s abbreviated LM for Lira Malti, and its value is hovering around 3USD. That’s an easy enough conversion most of the time, but it’s still hard to get a grasp on the value of things.

For the most part, things are worth the same, and the price just looks 1/3 of what we’d pay back home. But then there are certain things that cost more in other parts of the world and it’s hard to compare the value while trying to do conversions of pounds to dollars and liters to gallons at the same time. Like gasoline - it’s a significantly more expensive than in San Jose right now, just don’t ask me for a comparison.

Actually the most difficult thing to grasp is the value of the coinage. Even a one cent coin in Malta is worth more like a nickel in the States. It’s easy to throw around coins because I never feel like they’re worth much, but a fifty cent piece (LM) is actually a buck and a half (USD). And forget famous presidents or national monuments on the coins… we got a weasel! Here’s the low down:

1c – A weasel.
2c – An olive branch.
5c – A crab.
10c – A fish, lampuka to be exact.
25c – A flower called Ghirlanda.
50c – A plant called Tulliera (which is a beautiful name for a weed known as Fleabane or False Yellow Head in the States).
1p – The national bird, a Merrill
Then the paper money – There are 2, 5, and 10 pound notes, which are simply pink, blue, and green versions of the same design, each slightly different sizes.

There’s another snapshot of life in Malta for you.

Ride the Bus with Us

2005-06-06T22:05:00.000+02:00

The bus system here is actually really easy to use. We hopped on one of the orange and white Maltese icons on our very first day and got around easily for the first two weeks. All the buses (except for a couple of routes) go to and from Valletta, the nation’s capital. Right outside Valletta there’s a big round-about with the gigantic Triton Fountain in the middle where all the buses stop. If you need to get to the other side of the island, just hop on any bus, it’ll take you to Valletta, then hop off and ask somebody which bus goes to the other side, then hop on and you’re there. Way better than the VTA back home. It’s a simple matrix.

In fact, I was on my way into town wearing a black trench coat and dark glasses, trying to get on a bus, when I met a little, bald British boy in a toga.
Me: How do you it?
Boy: Do not try to stand in line for the bus. That is impossible. Only try to realize the truth.
Me: The truth?
Boy: There is no line.

He was right. People just sort of form a congregation near the spot they expect the bus to stop. When the right route number comes along, someone sticks out their thumb like a hitch-hiker, and the bus slows down for the most part. But unless there’s more than two people getting on or off (or if the one person could be as old as two), don’t expect the ride to come to a full and complete stop.

Once you get on the bus, you’ll pay the driver the incredibly reasonable fare of 20 Maltese cents. You’ll see the name of the bus somewhere near the front, or maybe it’s the name of the driver. You’ll also see a picture or shadow-box of the Virgin Mary and a sticker of some other favorite saint, and everyone crosses themselves when you enter the freeway (although we’ll soon be discussing the Maltese version of a freeway). You’ll notice that nowhere in my narrative thus far have I said that the door closed. It never does. Maybe that has something to do with everyone crossing themselves.

Half the buses are very recent models with low floors, bucket seats, and a very sophisticated electronic bell indicating “next stop, please.” The historical versions are like school buses with steep steps, narrow rows, and some twine rigged across the ceiling attached to little box that buzzes much more loudly than necessary. But all the buses, old or new, are orange on the bottom, white on the top, and have extremely loud horns (some of which I suspect would play La Cucaracha if the driver would lean a little longer). The drivers also are very helpful chaps, if only I could read lips, since the engines are too loud for any conversation.

In all, we were very happy to ride the bus as it was easy and convenient. But it did take us two hours to go less than 10 miles, so I’m glad someone in the church loaned us a car. But that’s a whole new adventure, so stay tuned.

The 2nd Great Seige of Malta

2005-06-02T23:05:00.000+02:00

Day 5.

It’s been a grueling battle of attrition over these last few days, and our forces were exhausted. Their attack was launched from excellent position. Honestly, we knew from the start that there was no hope. We knew that our defenses would eventually succumb to their superior tactics, but nobody expected the defeat to be so soon.

They knew we had to pass along the trade routes through Valletta, and they attacked from there. They didn’t even make any attempt at a surprise ambush. In fact I suspect that their strategy always involves the establishment of an obvious presence to intimidate the competition and assert their authority. And this case was no different. They blatantly mocked us with open defiance.

We had to take that path into the city for supplies and ammunition. Our last trip into Valletta had been easy enough; they were preoccupied with other quarry and we passed easily. But this time, disaster. They began offensive maneuvers from a brightly colored outpost, forcing us directly towards their core armaments. Once we saw their all-conquering, infamous war machine, the golden arches, we knew we were done for.

Thankfully, it was all over soon. My partner was downed with a Chicken McSupremo to the face, and I took a Big Mac pretty hard. But they didn’t leave it at that. Before they were finished with us, our bodies were riddled with french fries. And in some kind of morbid, post-victory ceremony, they doused our corpses in Coca-Cola.

The shame of defeat haunts us now. Not that we expected to go on forever, but we gave in so easily. After just 5 days! How can I ever look at myself in the mirror now? Curse you McDonalds!!

Merhba

2005-05-30T23:00:00.000+02:00

Merhba means welcome in Maltese. This wonderful country has already made Jessica and I feel welcome to its rocky shores, and now I welcome you to join us on our adventures as we post our stories and observations for your reading pleasure. We’ve been here nearly two weeks already and we’re finally hooked up to the internet and ready to start bloggin’.

So much has happened already that I almost don’t know where to begin. Jessica and I continue to find something strange and new each day and we say to each other “ooh, we have to remember to put that on the blog” or, “that’s definitely a blog topic.” I suppose we should have been keeping a list, but there’s no rush. You’ll just have to stay tuned as the picture of Malta becomes clearer.

For now, I guess we should just give y’all an update on our travels: We spent a day in London along the way, which was a blast. We got to see more of the city than we had hoped because the Underground was surprisingly easy to use. Getting all our luggage from London to Malta took some unexpected expenses, but we arrived in one piece and Pastor Joe and his wife Christine were there to meet us.

We drove to our flat (that’s British for apartment) and started getting settled in immediately. For the last two weeks we’ve been working out all kinds of details like phone lines, groceries, bank accounts, etc. It’s taking so long because 1) we’ve had to use the buses to get places, and even though the bus system is pretty good we’re quite a ways out of town and that means there’s only enough time for one or two errands in a day, 2) we’re taking it easy, enjoying our sea view and hanging out with the folks at church, and 3) these things just take patience in any foreign country.

Someone from the church just loaned us their car this last weekend so the challenge of driving on the left and navigating the mangled routes has been a tough one. And although we haven’t made it anywhere without getting lost first, we were still able to get a million more things done today than any day since.

The sun is always shining. The sea is bright blue. The people are very helpful. And the pastizzi (ricotta pastries) are delicious. In short, things are going really well. It’s amazing how God has blessed us on our travels and we’re excited to begin to discover the work He has planned for us.

We love you, and miss you all! E-mail us anytime. Stay tuned for more news and other anecdotes from Malta…

2005-05-30T11:00:00.000+02:00