Pilgrims on a Bus- The Journey Begins

Marsaxlook

Last night I officially transitioned from tourist to pilgrim (except ok really maybe I’m still a little bit tourist, but mostly pilgrim). I don’t know what happened to my cynicism, maybe it was two days in the sun on an island of miracles, but it seems to have left me. One thing I know though, awe displaces many a negative thing in me. And today has been awesome, in the truest sense of the word.

This Women’s Pilgrimage to Malta is offered through the quite appropriately named Edge of Wonder Tours. Sacred travel on a bus...who knew?

The morning started out with a circle of sharing about ourselves and what brought us here. There are thirty-two women on this trip and surprisingly (to me) I found that as each one shared their story, as different and unique as they were, they felt familiar. Travelers, seekers, searchers every one. One of the leaders of this trip said, “we are a small village.” We are a small traveling village, a tribe on a tour bus.

So much of my job is about listening to the stories and the stories beneath the stories of others. I love my job and in many ways it is the most profoundly satisfying thing I’ve ever experienced...but there is a piece of how my job works that always keeps a part of me separate from those I am attending to. That’s good, and right, and the way it should be.

Here though, I am beginning to feel the possibility of weaving my own story with the stories of others, of uncovering a part of myself that has been long concealed, even from me. Nobody knows who I am here so I get to be anybody, maybe even more myself.

One thing I have discovered: Even though I feel a bit like one of the women from the movie Strangers in Good Company, I really LIKE my big sun hat. I would never have guessed that, but I really like it..and what’s more...I wish I had a sun dress to go with it. It is REALLY HOT here. High in the 90’s with what has to be 90 some percent humidity. Even the tops of my feet are sweating!

I packed wool socks! I didn’t want to be cold- ha! As it turns out, as is often the case, my friend Laura was absolutely right when she told me all I needed to bring was two travel shirts, two travel pants, and one something nice to wear. Ah well, I am learning a lot about travel on this trip... and it’s all been an adventure so far.

Yesterday I had a public transportation adventure. I took the public bus into the capital city of Valletta. It was rather easy as all buses go to Valletta. If you need to go somewhere else, you go to Valletta first and transfer to another bus to get there. It was getting back to the hotel that was the adventure. I got off on the wrong stop...a way wrong stop. The problem for me was finding the right bay. There are so many and they all started looking the same to me (a little bit like the churches too!) Luckily, I just walked for a bit and got on another bus. I’ve never been so glad to see a church in my whole life as “my” church, the church across from my hotel. Happily, I did recognize it and got off at the right stop.

While in Valletta I walked around the city and saw many beautiful cool things. The most spectacular was St. John’s Cathedral. I’ve never seen anything like it. Incredibly ornate, with so much symbolism in every square inch. (If you want to read more about it, check out www.stjohnscocathedral.com) 

Saint John's Cathedral

Today, after our time at the hotel, we headed off to the prehistoric cave Ghar Dhalam.  They believe the cave was inhabited by humans 7000 years ago from 5200-4000 BC. And, in the excavations they have found the bones of dwarf hippos and elephants that are 180,000 years old!!!  I got to touch some of the bones; that was cool.

Ghar Dhalam

I’d always had this fantasy of living in a cave, Clan of the Cave Bear and all but now, having actually been in this one, I think I can give that up. It was very neat and also very cool (literally) but it was also humid and drippy and dark. It’s name- Ghar Dalam means Cave of Darkness. We did get to sing a chant in there and the sound was sweetly soft and echoey.

Our second stop was Borg In-Nadur, our first temple site. It is one of the lesser known sites. It was very, very hot here so we didn’t stay long but what I liked best is that we spent this time in total silence.

Borg In-Nadur

Our final stop of the day was in the ancient fishing village of Marsaxlokk (marsa-shlock). The harbor is so beautiful...and colorful...filled with traditional Maltese fishing boats called luzzu (loots-zoo).  They have the Eye of Osiris painted on the bows to ward off the evil spirits and bring good luck.

Eye of Osiris

 

Marsaxlook Harbor (look for the eyes)

It’s been a splendid day so far, this first day. In a couple of hours we are going to meet for an evening session with a slide presentation by Joan Marler, an archeomythologist and the other co-leader of this trip.

Tomorrow we are headed to Valletta to the National Archaeological Museum and to see a multimedia presentation on Malta history called the “Malta Experience.”

Sahha* for now.

(*Goodbye and Good Health)