It’s Iimi! Welcome to Paola

And so it begins! Kismetta and Sumeja visit Malta with Fatima in tow. Sumeja’s mission is to find a place to rent or buy in a town with the only Mosque in Malta and start the clock on citizenship. Kismetta’s mission is to experience the local school and test to see where she stands academically in relation to the other students. How will the two respond? Who knows, but…  Merħba Għal Raħal Ġdid (Welcome to Paola)

Pre-Comic Notes:

Merħba Għal Raħal Ġdid literally translates as “Welcome to New Village,” which is what Paola is called in Maltese. The phrase is pronounced, “mehr-ha-ba ahl ra-hal jdid.” (perhaps you can see why Kismetta was so frustrated in studying Maltese in Issue 245).

 

Post-Comic Notes:

The Maltese overheard are left untranslated in the comic to show that Kismetta has no idea what is being said. The translations can be found here for your benefit:

The priest’s homily on page two is from Benedict XVI’s Angelus on 11/26/06 and then run through Google Translate. The English translation I have of that segment of the Angelus is:

“But what is the “truth” that Christ came into the world to witness to? The whole of his life reveals that God is love: so this is the truth to which he witnessed to the full with the sacrifice of his own life on Calvary.”

The dialogue between Klawdja, her friends, and the Sister translates as:

“I hear that the school is admitting an Arab girl.”
“No way!”
“What I heard. I was waiting for the headmistress to yell at me for my grades.”
“Klawdja Xiriha! Front and Center!”
“Now, what have I done?”

 The Maltese girls saying that Kismetta used to be an Arab and asking if Sumeja still is one comes from a Maltese tendency to call all Muslims “Arab” (or “African.”)

“Indanna…” means “Damn….”

There are eight time zones between London and San Francisco. When traveling west, the arrival time (6:45 PM) is almost four and a half hours after departure (3:20 PM). But it will feel like 2:45 AM the next day (the time in London).

Image Credits

Mariam Al-Batool Mosque at Triq Kordin in Paola, Malta by Frank Vincentz - Own work. Used under CC BY-SA 3.0

Some images used in this comic were AI drafted by the author using NightCafe and then edited by the same. No copyrighted artist names (living or dead) were used in the prompts or for “AI training.”

I have no idea whether the Arabic background on page 11, panel 1, is authentic Arabic or just random gibberish created by AI. If it’s real, I didn’t post it to endorse the message, positive or negative.