Today Malta celebrates 43 years since its independence from Britain, which put an end to millenia of being ruled by just about every major power in the Euro-Mediterranean area. Phoenicians, Carthagenians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Sicilians, Spanish, Knights of St. John, British... they all left their mark on the islands and contributed to its unique and distinct culture and identity.
I wish everyone in Malta a happy Jum l-Indipendenza!!
Our flat is a clean place. M and I are clean people and always make an effort to have tidy living quarters. However, we decided that perhaps once a month we should have a professional come in and do a thorough cleaning of the entire place. In between these expert interventions, we can just do some light upkeep around the house.
So, the search was on to find a good cleaner who could come at regular intervals. As with most things in Malta, we went on word-of-mouth. M's sister suggested her own cleaning lady. We figured that somebody who is able to clean a big house belonging to a family with teenagers should have no trouble with our little two-person dwellings.
The recommended lady showed up at the agreed time, and I busied myself on the computer as she did her work. So you can imagine how very, shall we say, surprised I was when after a very short while she came up to me and said "I am finished, I am leaving now" with the confidence of somebody who had finished all her tasks. I had not heard the vacuum cleaner at all. As far as I could tell, she had not been in the bedroom. In fact, she had not even gone into the kitchen, where I had been the entire time. I did not know what to say. Perhaps in Malta things are done this way? Perhaps there are certain things that are just not done by cleaners? And so when M came home, I told him what had happened and added that at least in my non-Maltese perspective sweeping the floors and ironing a few shirts did not constitute proper house-cleaning. That was the last time she came.
Next, M's mother offered the lady that has been helping her with the housework for years. She even offered to come with her to make sure that things got done properly. It was an offer we could not refuse. They showed up one morning, and I even went out so as not to get in their way. We both came home later to find dust still on tables. But it is very difficult to complain to one's mother/mother-in-law about such a thing. She was a bit offended. And so we thought it best to keep family out of this matter.
What to do? We continued searching, and finally M's good friend D said that he had a lady that came once a month and did a thorough job of his flat, where he lives alone. It sounded exactly like what we needed! He told us that she charges a bit more than usual, but she is worth every ċenteżmu. And so we gave it one more try.
D's recommendation is a sweet lady from Rabat, who must be in her late 50's. We had a chat with her before she began, and I explained in my staggering Maltese (this was a few months back) that we had just had a woman who swept, ironed and left, and that we really expected her to do more. She then turned to M and asked "what did he say?" At least my language skills have improved since then.
This time we made a list of what we considered basic: vacuuming, cleaning bathroom and kitchen, dusting where there was dust. Pretty simple, wouldn't you say? We also agreed that there were other, less pressing things that could be rotated. One time she could do the balcony windows, another time she could sweep the balcony, occasionally the kitchen window, etc.
She turned out to be excellent. The house was left spotless. She was a keeper!
Since I am usually the one who is home when she comes to clean, she and I have developed a nice friendship. She is one of those relatively few Maltese who really struggles to speak English. Even though at first she would not answer me in Maltese, just like most locals do not, with time she has warmed up to the idea that instead of struggling with English she can just chat away to me in Maltese. (At least part of the time. Old habits die hard). Because believe me, she looooooooves to chat. A lot. All the time. About everything. Whether I am listening or not. Sometimes she even chats to herself. It is really charming to watch.
There are only a few caveats to follow. For example, if we leave out any dishes or pans, she will put them away where she thinks they should go, which can lead us to have to hunt all over the kitchen for them later. So I now make sure they are all put away before she arrives. The other thing is that she does not believe in recycling, so she throws everything out. In fact she throws out whatever she deems to be rubbish. So I do a quick check around the flat and make sure to put away anything that she might consider rubbish. And I take out the recyclables before she can get to them.
This morning she told me of her upcoming holiday to Corfu. It will be her first time on an airplane, and her first time outside of Malta except for three short visits to Catania in Sicily. What a great country, where cleaning ladies can take holidays on the Greek islands!
The other day, I got an e-mail from a Peruvian living in Italy who had come across my blog. Never having met in person, he told me to contact a Peruvian friend of his living in Malta! What a small and cyber-connected world it has become.
I rang the Peruvian (whom I will call "Maria" in keeping with my blog's anonymity) and as fate would have it she lives just down the street from me, so we decided to meet up that very evening. So far, all the foreigners I have met in Malta are Europeans, North Americans and a couple of Israelis. And so I was very interested to meet some "third world" immigrants and to learn about their experiences and perspectives.
I found Maria at the agreed spot and she gave me two kisses, Maltese style (Peruvians only give one). Sign number one that she has been integrating. We chatted a bit about each other and how we wound up here. By her count, there are 11 Peruvians on the island, and the first question is clear: how did they wind up HERE?
She ran down a mental list. Almost everyone has a Maltese spouse. There were others here before but have since moved on to different countries of mainland Europe, in search of more opportunities. There are the Peruvian musicians that I keep hearing about but have never seen. (Everyone says that they play music on the streets, but after one year I have yet to run into them). Her own case is a bit different: she worked with Maltese priests doing missionary work in Lima, and wound up coming back with them on a visit over four years ago. She has not left since.
And when I say she has not left since, that is not a euphemism. Unlike all of the "first world" immigrants that I mentioned above, Peruvians cannot travel so easily. Peru is a very poor country and used to have a terrorist movement (used to, I should add, no longer does!!! But the rest of the world seems to have missed that fact), and so that brands its passport holders as the target of suspicion and hostility by many immigration officers in the "first world" countries. Maria has tried twice to go to Sicily just for a day trip, but has been denied a visa. It really puts all of this RyanAir cheap-flight craze in perspective.
Luckily and with some connections, she has been able to obtain work permits that have kept her status legal and employable. But every year it must be renewed, and every year there is the apprehension of being denied. Despite all of this, she seems to be happy making her new life here and seems pretty determined to remain. She has had Maltese boyfriends and speaks nearly flawless English now, with a slight Maltese accent no less! That is another point. Most Europeans arrive here speaking English, but in Peru very few people do. Learning the language well was another of her challenges.
Then she introduced me to another Peruvian, whom I will call "José" though I fear anonymity might not work in this case. He sells Peruvian handicrafts and CD's of his Andean music in the streets of Malta, and so many of my readers must have seen him. So, without compromising his privacy, I will summarise and say that his story was also pretty unique. Based in Brazil and Italy, he comes to Malta every summer to sell his wares as the island's population swells with tourists. I do not know how he first came upon this rock, but he has kept coming back for several years.
I asked if he needs a permit to sell on the street. He does, though by now people know him and do not really bother him with formalities. He recounted how the other day he was selling in Valletta and the police came round and were about to remove him, but the local workers who have known him for years came out in his defence and convinced the police to leave him alone. That was refreshing to hear. These days there is, unfortunately, somewhat of a racist and anti-foreigner feeling going around in Malta, basically aimed at the African boat refugees. So I was happy to hear that there are still people with clean hearts and minds that are willing to stand up for a friend, even if he looks and speaks differently.
It was José who asked if I spoke Maltese. I said I do speak it pretty well. What about Maria? "Mhux ħażin" she replied, telling us that she can understand some but does not speak it well. It was more than I expected! But again, perhaps I have been influence by most (European) immigrants' attitude that learning Maltese is not necessary, further reinforced by the Maltese population's insistence that learning Maltese by a foreigner is not expected and, in my experience, almost mocked. She did say that she has little opportunity or reason to use it, which I can certainly understand. And José? He said he has picked up a few phrases only, but that he finds it useless because he cannot use the language in any other country. Considering he does not live here full time, I can see his point, but my feeling is still that you can use the language here and that is where I live.
It was a surreal evening, sitting there talking to them while José sold his handicrafts. Lost in conversation, I felt like I was back in Lima. Then I would look around me and realise that I was in Malta. For a while, I was on the other side of the looking-glass, seeing locals and tourists perusing his merchandise, haggling over the price, trying things on. I thought of how all of these people know nothing about the stories behind the man doing the selling. I wondered what preconceived notions they had of him and how he wound up in Malta, or if they even thought about it at all.
Now for a much lighter topic.
The one-year contract one our cable system finally expired. (This nearly coincides with the first anniversary of my arrival in Malta , an event which passed without any fanfare).
One of the nice perks of life in Europe is the ability to watch TV from many different countries. However, our cable provider did not have the Spanish or French stations, which are the two I really would have liked (in addition to Maltese, Italian and BBC, which come standard in Malta ). So, we switched to the other company. There might not be too much consumer choice on these islands, but there is at least enough competition around to provide an alternative in some areas. And so, a few days ago we got hooked-up to a new array of channels.
I can finally listen to Spanish television, as well as brush up on my French which is a bit rusty. But we got more than we bargained for… there are also two German channels, more Italian channels than we had before, different English language stations and even two in Arabic. You have probably figured out by now that I am a language dork, so this is heaven for me. I sat in awe going from channel to channel, but wound up being particularly fascinated by the Arabic station.
A commercial showing a woman with a veil trying a facial soap really caught my eye as pretty hilarious. Wouldn’t she remove it, so as not to get it wet? Soon, the Arabic version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” came on the screen. Then some melodramatic telenovela came on, M joined me on the couch, and we were hooked. I keep hearing that Arab speakers can understand Maltese, but definitely not the other way around. However, I was able pick up words and phrases here and there. And since M is a native Maltese speaker and studied a bit of Arabic, he picked up a lot more. It was amusing that I was able to understand some of the commercials, however. During another program, I picked out enough words to figure out that the woman being interviewed was the daughter of Egypt ’s deposed King Farouk. Looks like Maltese winds up being useful outside the islands as well!
But the fun did not stop there. We also have access to several international radio stations! A bit odd, perhaps, to receive radio on the television. The main Maltese ones are all there, as well as many European ones. I will now publicly embarrass both myself and M by stating that when we discovered that we have the Bollywood Greatest Hits station, we celebrated by doing a little dance reminiscent of Hindi movies in accompaniment to the music.
They say the key to happiness is finding joy in the little things in life…
And as the year cycles around, tonight marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) once again. I wish a happy, sweet and healthy new year to all my blog readers of all religions.
Warning: angry rant below.
A couple of days ago, we received a post card from the Minister of Tourism and Culture. It is written in a font that makes it look like it is handwritten, which is some type of unsuccessful attempt to make us believe he wrote each one himself.
The card is addressed to us as a family. How very nice of the Hon. Francis Zammit Dimech to acknowledge that two men living together as a couple constitute a family. I almost want to send him a (real) handwritten post card in return, thanking him for his acknowledgement and asking if he would care to accompany that with any of the rights that other foreigners enjoy when married to a Maltese citizen.
Mostly, he thanks us for making this a year of record tourism in Malta. He even goes so far as to say that “l-impenn u x-xogħol tiegħek bħala Malti żgur għent bil-kbir biex fit-turiżmu akkwistajna dawn ir-riżultati eċċellenti.” Well, I am flattered Francis. Too bad that I am not Maltese and cannot even obtain any kind of residence status because of your government’s old-fashioned and homophobic laws. Perhaps if your colleagues in Parliament passed some laws similar to those of most Western countries, I might just be Maltese enough to be a productive member of society and help out in your tourism goals. And your letter addressed to us as a family would acknowledge a legal reality instead of a de facto situation.
(While we are at it, I calculate that in order to send this card to every household in the country, postage alone must have cost around Lm16,000/€34,269.97. What a wonderful use of taxpayers’ money).
Feeling a bit frustrated today… can you tell?
