Első nap - Volter Etelka - Málta
Nehezen veszem rá magam az írásra. Ennek több oka is van:
egyrészt nagyon elfáradok, mire hazaérek a szállásra, másrészt nagyon meleg
van, inkább lemegyek a partra és ülök a sziklákon, nézem a tengert. És persze
nosztalgiázok…
Ha már a lakosokról beszéltünk, bizony nagy változáson ment
keresztül a sziget az elmúlt bő tíz év alatt. Régen is láttunk néhány
külföldit, jellemző volt, hogy például a Fülöp-szigetekről érkező nők gyermekgondozóként
és háztartás-vezetőként dolgoztak, vagy idős személyeket ápoltak. Ismertünk is
személyesen közülük párat. Láttunk Gozón néhány feketét, néhányan ide
házasodtak, két focista a helyi klubban játszott. Máltán nyilván többen voltak
akkor is. Ez mára drasztikusan megváltozott. A büfékben, éttermekben szinte nem
látni helyieket, de sok boltban is külföldiek dolgoznak, pakisztánok,
bangladesiek, fekete-afrikaiak. A buszsofőrök jó része is külföldi. Sokat
utazom busszal, egy-egy megállónál sokan szállnak fel, de tízből legalább
hat-hét nem máltai, viszont nem is turista. Munkába mennek, vagy éppen
munkából jönnek. Sokan dolgoznak közülük, de sajnos sokan nem. Gozói barátok
mesélték, hogy gyakran van nézeteltérés a különböző „bandák” között, verekedések
is gyakoriak. Ma már nem hagyják nyitva az ajtót. Olyat még gyakran látni, hogy
az autót lehúzott ablakkal otthagyják. Tizenhárom évvel ezelőtt még nyugodtan
hazamehettünk éjszaka Elinnel kettesben, ma már ezt nem biztos, hogy
megkockáztatnánk.
Day 1
I find it hard to get myself to write. There are several
reasons for this: on the one hand, I'm very tired when I get back to the
hostel, and on the other hand, it's very hot, so I prefer to go down to the
beach and sit on the rocks, looking at the sea. And, of course, nostalgia...
I should say a few words about the course. The name of the
training institution is Alpha School of English, founded in Maltese-Irish. They
run several courses in parallel. At the moment there is a creative education
course, there is a simple language course and the third one, which I am on, is
Recharching Educational Professionals - a mindfulness-type course. The school
is 5 minutes from my accommodation and luckily we start at 8:30. This was
already a sympathetic approach from the venue. On arrival, we were greeted
kindly and directed to the right room. Then we had our first surprise, there
were two of us in our group with a Czech teacher. I was always worried whether
my English would be good enough for the course. Well, I won't be after this...
Fortunately, both people who are teaching the course are very patient and
explain everything. They speak English beautifully, relatively slowly, and
clearly. One Pierre, a young Maltese guy studying philosophy at university, is
doing this course part-time. He does his job very well. If we don't understand
something, he never tells us the solution but leads us to it. He doesn't let
us look up the meaning of a word with a translator but gives us examples until
we figure out the meaning on our own. The other is Chris, who works full-time at
the school and is young too. It's an
intensive course, you could say, and the two of us get quite personalized
attention.
After class, I took in the city, or rather the cities,
because they were almost completely grown together. One half of the square is
still St Paul's Bay, the other half Buġibba. You take a
few steps and you reach the third settlement, called Qawra.
Here you will find the Malta National Aquarium, the largest aquarium on the
islands, home to over 175 different species of animals, including fish,
mollusks, reptiles, and insects. Similar to our home on Lake Tisza in Poroszló.
Well, a little bigger. I walked along the coastal promenade back and forth, you
can't get enough of the sea. It was a bit hot, but luckily I didn't get
sunstroke. This is probably the part of Malta that gives the most 'resort'
feel.
St Paul's Bay is one of Malta's municipalities, known as the
local council, with a population of 13 619, making it the most populous
municipality in the northern region. According to another source, it had 32 042
inhabitants in 2021. That's a bit suspicious, it doesn't change that much in
two years. Especially nowadays... However, in the summer, the number of
residents, including tourists, exceeds 60,000. Even now the city is still quite
crowded. The name of the area refers to the fact that, according to tradition,
the Apostle St. Paul was shipwrecked here in the year 60. Well, he wasn't a saint
then. The island is about 100 m long, and there are no inhabitants, a farmer used
to farm it, but he has now left the area. A statue was erected in 1845, which
can be seen from here and from the mainland. Today the island is a popular dive
site for divers. When we lived here, it was the 950th anniversary of the
shipwreck, and the whole year was dedicated to it. In practice, Malta's Christianisation dates from here. It was no coincidence that the Pope timed his visit to Malta
to coincide with this. Thanks to my friends in Gozo, I was able to join the pilgrimage
and had the privilege of seeing Pope Benedict XVI from about 100 meters away.
Speaking of residents, the island has certainly changed a
lot in the last ten years or so. We used to see a few foreigners, and it was
common to see women from the Philippines, for example, working as childminders
and heads of households, or caring for the elderly. We knew some of them
personally. We saw some black people in Gozo, some of them married here, and two
footballers played in the local club. There were obviously more in Malta at the
time. That has changed drastically now. You hardly see any locals in the
canteens and restaurants, but there are foreigners working in many shops,
Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and black Africans. Many of the bus drivers are also
foreigners. I travel a lot by bus, many people get on at one stop or another,
but at least six or seven out of ten are not Maltese, but are locals, not
tourists. They are going to work or coming from work. Many of them are working,
but unfortunately many are not. Friends in Gozo have told me that there are
often disagreements between the different 'gangs', and fights are common. Today
they don't leave the door open. It is still common to see people leaving their
cars with the windows down. Thirteen years ago, it was safe to go home alone
with Elin at night, but nowadays we might not risk it.
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