Louis Debattista said that a team of 25 volunteers left on foot from Qala for Sunday afternoon’s ‘.’ “We had a little friendly competition to see who could pick up the most rubbish on our way down the coastal road from Qala to Ghajnsielem – girls on one side of the road and boys on the other.”

“The sun was out and we kept up a good pace towards Our Lady of Lourdes and then down to Xatt l-Ahmar and on to Mgarr Ix-Xini.” Louis added, “The kids were happy to see the “Secrets” bus after our 3 1/2 hour hike! The youngest kids were six years old and the oldest, 13.”

Louis commented “we had all hoped kids and families from Ghajnsielem and other villages would join us but they didn’t. Thankfully we had our reliable team, with two new young ones joining us from Qala Primary School. Where was everyone?”

“It was so nice to be outside in the sunshine after being inside all day Saturday with the rain. We had kids from Qala and two families from Xaghra (one German family and one English family), and the American family joined us as well to help with this clean-up hike.” Louis asked WHY aren’t more Gozitans joining in and helping out? We are encouraging kids to understand why we are picking up trash and to stay active, healthy and enjoy our beautiful island.”Louis thanked the Ghajnsielem Local Council for providing everything they needed (bags, gloves, wipes and transport back to Qala). “We picked up 15 big bags of recycling on this week’s hike. It’s a shame how much rubish is left on the streets and on the land!”

“God help me it started raining so we stopped picking up and ran for the bus! Good timing: we were lucky that the bus was there waiting for us, thanks to the driver Sammy, and by the time we arrived back in Qala it was raining very heavily.”

Louis also pointed out that as the grass is now being cut along the side of some of the the roads, then why not pick up the rubbish as well? “It was nice to see the grass is getting cut along the Nadur Road from Xaghra roundabout (close to Victoria) to the Horse Track – but what about the plastic, glass, paper, metal that is still there? Why not have someone picking it up while they are cutting?”

“It was great to see all the effort from kids and grown-ups,” Louis said, ” I do thank my wife for keeping up with this, the German, English and American families that are still with us to help and Mr David Camilleri, the strong man that stays at the back to make sure we don’t leave any rubbish or kids behind! God Bess you all and thank you.”

One of the families who took part in Sunday’s hike wrote: “Today’s Gozo-Rocks Green & Clean Hike! Just made it home before it started to pour… but what a lovely day! Much fun and always so rewarding to clean up Gozo! Thanks Gozo-Greyhounds Louis…as always, you are an inspiration to us all! P.S.: The girls won! Girls Rule! Also, anyone local should come out to join us next time…a lucky kid found 10 Euro while picking up trash!!”

For more information, please contact Louis through the Gozo-Greyhounds facebook page, or email him on louismalti@aol.com.

Bottom photographs – Rubbish seen on the road to the heliport.

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