A newcomer to Malta can quickly deduct that the bus transit system has a strong union. The number of buses sitting idle at the Valletta terminal, as drivers take 10 to 30 minute breaks, is an indication of a system that is not efficient, nor passenger considerate.

The bus drivers’ attitude is the most telling feature on an inhospitable operation. Not all, but the majority, are little kings in their kingdom; answering passengers with a frown, and a sigh of disgust at such a foolish question.

Notice tourist passengers looking down at their change as they proceed back to their seats; calculating how much they have just been stiffed.

I will conclude with a positive story of my experiences on Maltese buses:

On 27 April I caught the bus from our home in Sliema to the central bus terminal at Valletta. I boarded a bus and asked if it was going to Marsa. The driver looked up at me and questioned, “You been there before?”

“No.”

“Then I'll tell you when we arrive.”

I've been here 11 weeks, riding buses almost every day, and that was the kindest gesture a bus driver has made. (Another difference from Syria...those Syrian drivers are the nicest and most helpful guys!)

A woman spoke to the driver from outside and he leaped up to put her baby stroller on board. Wow! I reached for my pen and scribbled a note to him on the back of my card, “I've been living here two months and you're the best driver I've seen! Jim”

We get to Marsa; I hand him the card and step off.

I followed a worn path through grass and came to what an article termed “a down-at-heel suburb of Valletta.”

Boy, you can say that again! There was a smell that was remarkably familiar in Syria. Sewage in a nearby stream was emitting the worst odour I've found since arriving on Malta.

The camp is a sad complex of deteriorated buildings. I went to the small building at the gate with a sign “Centre”. I introduced myself as an American living here for a year; and would be available as a volunteer English teacher.

Next on my list of visits was an Austrian artist who has an art gallery in Vittoriosa. I found an article online about him and thought he might be a good contact. So I rode a bus back to the Valletta terminal and boarded the bus to Birgu. The article said, “The gallery is somewhat difficult to locate.”

I had the address and was checking the street signs. There was a man a block away walking towards me. I'll ask this guy.

You'll never believe who the man was! It was the nice bus driver I had handed the note to earlier in the day. How he got to that street in that village at the same time I was there, I'll never know. We looked at each other. He smiles. I say, “You're the bus driver!”

He says, “You must have had some bad drivers, eh?”

Jim Calhoun

American Artist on Malta 2009