60
ViGiLO - Din l-Art Ħelwa ISSUE 57 • MAY 2022
People John Neville Ebejer
Mark Shrimpton
I am the assistant guardian at the Bir Miftuh chapel in Gudja. I became involved with Din l-Art Ħelwa when I participated in a presentation at Bir Miftuh. I then became interested in the site itself, and particularly in the idea that it takes volunteers to open the place to visitors. In my role at Din l-Art Ħelwa, I really enjoy sharing my enthusiasm and appreciation of our heritage with others. Looking ahead, I am planning to get more involved in setting up animated displays on sites managed by Din l-Art Ħelwa.
I am the Warden of Torri Xutu in Wied iżZurrieq (please visit us!). I work with a United Nations team of volunteers from all over the world, with a core group of three lovely Maltese guys. We open Torri Xutu most mornings of the week and welcome—during non-Covid and the tourist season—up to 1,000 visitors per month. Essentially, aside from opening the Tower on Fridays, my role is to manage the site, get things fixed when they break and cash up and report at the end of every month. I got involved with Din l-Art Ħelwa by chance! I was signposted to Din l-Art Ħelwa and met the then president Maria Grazia Cassar (wonderful woman) and two Maltese volunteers. We very quickly gelled and I drew the short straw to become Warden of the fabulously restored Tower. In my role at Din l-Art Ħelwa I enjoy making fabulous friends from all over the world and guiding visitors from places as far flung as Mongolia and Peru. The Torri Xutu collective has become a close group—we meet at least four times a year, usually for far too much beer or wine. Thus we have become a family. Regarding future plans, we are beginning to extend personalised events at Torri Xutu. For example, a whole day filming for a children’s television show, an engagement proposal, confirmation photos and, very soon, a wedding.
