Lindi Elementary School students and teachers visited Malta from 25.-29. of October (2021)
On that project meeting participated Sandra Männiksaar and Pauline Kristine Unt from 4th grade and teachers Sülvi Kaljurand and Kadri Tamberg.
Our trip started on the evening of October 23, 2021 with a bus ride from Pärnu to Riga, to be ready to take off from Riga early in the morning to Malta with a transfer to Amsterdam.
We met teachers and pupils of the Dutch school at Schiphol airport (Amsterdam) and everyone else from Austria and Spain already at Malta Airport. Together we started our exciting project week with a tour of Mdina. It is a fortified town in the northern part of Malta, which was the capital of the island from the Middle Ages.
After that we took a ferry to the island of Gozo and the minibuses took us to our hotel. We had dinner together at the restaurant near to the hotel.
On Monday (25.10) we were welcomed to our host school Gozo College Zebbug Primary. We were greeted by headmistress Mrs Sandra Casarini and students singing the European anthem. It is a lovely little school, which is still 3 times bigger than our school. The classrooms are located around the school yard – a football field. During the breaks between the lesson students can go and play there straight from their classrooms.
It was then time for students from partner schools to present their presentations to introduce their home, school and country they come from. Our girls, Sandra and Pauline Kristine did it very well. It was exciting to listen, learn and see about the life and schools of students from other countries.
After that children had a practical lesson, where they learned to filter muddy water into drinking water with simple tools. It is a big problem to get the drinking water on the islands of Malta and we learned about the ways they deal with it by filtering also salty sea water. One of the local school class students made the filter at the same time in their classroom. Because of the Covid restrictions we all had to be separated but children saw each other live through the big screen of the classrooms and were able to compare their results.
After lunch at school we headed to Dweijra on the other side of the island. There is a small cove between the rocks, which can only be reached by sea through a tunnel on the rock. Children had the opportunity to try kayaking and also enjoy a boat trip on the high seas through a rock tunnel. Although it started to rain then some of us went to swim. We also visited a small nature science center and children learned there about the marine environment and nature conservation.
On Tuesday (26.10) the weather was very stormy and children started the day by filling their logbooks.
After that we went for a hike along the coast, which was full of wonderful views. The path was lined with large cactus bushes and stone fences on which we saw many lizards warming 
themselves in the sunshine.
After this nice and long walk it was great to relax in the hotel and children had a nice paddling time in the hotel´s rooftop warm saltwater pool. Before having dinner children also had time to wrote in their logbooks about daily events. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant with teachers and staff members from the school of Zebbug.
On Wednesday (27.10) we started our day at the school of Zebbug
where a lesson was given on the topic: “Our differences make us special”. After that we had again time for presentations from students of partner schools about their home, school and country.
Then the bus took us to Victoria (the capital of the Gozo island) where we visited a medieval fortress (citadel) and the church (St George Basilica). We had a little walk around the streets and we found nice souvenirs to take home.
After a walk in Victoria, we drove to Zebbug Church where we met with a local priest and a representative of the city government. We admired the beauty of the church building and saw a rehearsal of the play that Sunday school children were preparing for a coming event.
On Thursday (28.10) morning we visited the ruins of an ancient temple (Ggantija temple) dated from stone age and the history museum, where children had an interesting lesson about the life on stone age. In the end they had to create (draw) a human of that time using the examples they were given and introduce it to others. After an exciting lesson about history we also visited the old museum-windmill presenting local rural life in the past.
After a short walk in Victoria and the lunch we had a break before the dinner together with local Zebbug school students.
On Friday (29.10) morning we attended for the last time the Zebbug school. It was rainy and sports day events were held in the gym inside. All the partner school children had together fun in running games.
The headmistress mrs Sandra lead us to their school museum. There we saw many interesting school equipment like books, school booklets, ink pens and more that were used on the last century.
And then it was time to say goodbye to our hosts. We started our way back home. We all were taken by bus to Valletta and we had a good opportunity to see a bit this historical city – the capital of Malta. We spent there one night before taking our flight early in the morning.
See you again, dear friends! It was great to meet and get to know all the participant pupils and their teachers!
We are so thankful to all the school staff of Zebbug public school who were involved with hosting us. They did a great job even the weather conditions were not so good. We had a great time and we learned a lot about Maltese people, especially their warmth and positive attitude! Thank You!
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