From time to time we come across accounts of personal experiences which involve considerable stamina, courage and perseverance. Such is Beyond the Ghibli, a memoir published by Vicki Crowley.
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Briefly, this is an account of a girl born in Malta of Maltese parents whose entrepreneurial bent led them to out-of-the- way places like Eritrea and Benghazi, Libya. Then, following her marriage to an Irish engineer, she continued to travel to even more challenging posts, including Sierra Leone, Gibraltar and Cameroon. If ‘wanderlust’ is an inherited condition, it would explain why some families seem to have it in their blood to wander around the world in search of a better life if not simply for excitement.
Living in all imaginable places in Africa there is often the likelihood of facing challenges, not necessarily related to the possibility of attacks by carnivorous animals or other megafauna, but might more likely caused by tiny ,though no less dangerous creatures, such as the ubiquitous mosquito, the carrier of the malaria parasite to which eventually the author actually fell victim.
Conceived in Benghazi where her parents ran a business, but born in Malta when WWII was raging (hence her hopeful name, Victoria), the author remembers life in the shelters, “cave-like spaces that had been hewn out of the limestone rock” where “an acrid scent of fear and anxiety hung in the stale air above thebodies huddled close together... amid the constant hum of prayers and litanies”.
Once WWII was over, it was time to leave Malta and sail down the Red Sea to Eritrea, stopping at various ports along the way, having shark steaks for dinner and fending off vendors who “seemed to speak every language under the sun” enticing them with “real pearls to buy”.
The drive to Asmara where she travelled with her mother and brother to meet her father was torturous .“The road twisted and turned in sharp bends while precipitous drops fell dangerously to one side”.Other dangers lurked along the way ‘”because of bandits called ‘Shifta’ who were known to make barriers across the road... Having forced the cars to stop, they would then swoop down to rob the travellers, resorting to extreme violence when their victims resisted”.
A six-year child could not but be impressed with the exotic surroundings in Eritrea. She describes encounters with groups of baboons, eating strange food, including warthog, antelope and game birds which she refused to eat “as they tasted very strange”, visiting farms “where reptiles and ostriches were raised for their skins”, and seeing “crocodiles snapping their jaws in shallow water tanks”. She concludes: “Our life in Asmara was filled with love and plenty, with space and adventure, discovery and new knowledge.”
But life in any paradise does not last forever. Her parents, like most parents, worried about the education of their children and so decided to send her back to Malta where, as a boarder in a private school, she was to spend several years of misery. She says of her sudden separation from her mother: “I was filled with a deep sadness. It is hard to imagine so much grief in such a young child but I felt as if my life had been sucked out of me. I sat numb and speechless on my bed unable even to cry.”
Her schooling required her to unlearn the metric system and learn the British Imperial system in its place. “We were not allowed to speak Maltese”. These experiences of isolation from her parents left a lasting effect which was not erased when she went back home over the holidays. She “had put an instinctive protective barrier around myself so that I would never be so hurt by separation again. I had become very independent...”
Following the murder of her uncle in Benghazi in 1949, the family had to leave Asmara and go to take over the business in Libya where they had a soft drinks factory with a massive turnover, as well as vineyards which produced good wine and an import-export agency. In addition to the problems associated with settling down again, problems familiar to any migrant, Libya presented dangers of its own because “it was not unusual for unexploded WWII bombs and mines to blow up in the most unlikely places.”
More than a travelogue describing the experience of an ordinary family in an exceptional environment, these memoirs are a tribute to the strength of the human spirit
On occasions there would arise “a Ghibli sandstorm of such ferocity that daylight was blocked out for a few days, inducing terror in our hearts”. And yet, as they say, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, because it eventually brought Vicki into contact with her future husband when they both ran for shelter from a Ghibli sandstorm.
There were compensations too in Benghazi, which was then a city full of expatriates who enjoyed a social life of receptions and soirées and a sailing club where its members socialised and spent many hours swimming, sailing and fishing in the blue Mediterranean.
Of the school which she attended for an interim period in Libya she says: “The students were very cosmopolitan. They were the children of Italian, Palestinian, Lebanese, Greek, Armenian, Egyptian, Albanian and Maltese expatriates living in Benghazi, as well as some local Libyans.” Such an eclectic ethnic mix of students must have given this Maltese girl a valuable and unique educational experience which was certainly unknown in Malta.
Living in a country with widely different views and mores she says: “From a very young age, I had been aware of the code of behaviour that one must observe in a Moslem country. So my clothes were never low cut, clinging or short in length and I always wore my longhair tied back or put up in various styles... A young bare-headed woman walking around freely attracted unwanted attention.”
Her peripatetic existence continued after her marriage to an Irish engineer. Together, they spent three years on the Rock of Gibraltar where life was smooth and close to the delights of neighbouring Spain, with easy access also to North Africa.
Following her husband, who as a project manager had to travel to start extensive engineering works mainly in Africa, the family which by now included three young children, found themselves in Sierra Leone, where the average rainfall in August alone was 43 inches (109 cm),“...accompanied by thunder and lightning of dramatic proportions... fork lightning there strikes with such force that mature trees are often split in half”. Their temporary prefab accommodation had a metal roof which served to increase the noisy effect of these elemental events during the rainy season.
A final destination was Cameroon, West Africa, which for most people would seem to be at the end of the world, yet, Vicki declares: “I knew straight away that I was going to be very happy here.” She made friends easily with other expatriates at the Bota club. It was a place where the locals showed their appreciation with strange gifts, including on one occasion a gift of an entire deer which she said “seemed to stare at me accusingly and I thought that I could see a tear suspended in the corner of its beautiful almond shaped eye”. It was here that she suffered a severe attack of malaria, that killer of many visiting Europeans.
Finally, the author and her family travelled to Galway in Ireland where they put down permanent roots. This is where Vicki, an established visual artist has a studio where she works. Her paintings hang in private and public collections in Ireland and all over the world. She has received many prestigious commissions, including stained glass windows in many churches in Ireland.
Living in a foreign land requires adaptability, becoming accustomed to eating exotic and strange-tasting food, interacting with people who are different, speak a different language and who are wired differently from most of us who were reared on a diet of European culture. Embracing the opportunities and challenges as they occur results in an education that is rich in life experiences which needless to say are not available to those who stay at home protected by family and society.
More than a travelogue describing the experience of an ordinary family in an exceptional environment, these memoirs are a tribute to the strength of the human spirit which can face the unknown and overcome all obstacles unheard of or even imagined by those whose only challenge, week after week, is to get up in the morning, catch a bus and go to work a few miles away.
This is a very readable memoir and as the blurb on the cover says, it is “a celebration of life and more especially the life of a woman, wife and mother... the narrative bears testament to the courage and resilience of women and mothers world-wide”.
Richly illustrated with 32 pages of interesting archival photographs, the book cover is illustrated by the author. The inner covers are uniquely colourful with printed labels of the Xuereb products.
Beyond the Ghibli, a memoir by Vicki Crowley, née Xuereb, is available from www.kennys.ie, desi@kennys.ie who will mail the book anywhere in the world postage free. Price €20.
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