A Village Wired to a Volcano

Walking back through the village later, Polly noticed steam rising not just from the cooking pits but from cracks along the roadside, from drains, and from a large public pool glowing a warm orange-brown in the afternoon light. The same heat that cooked lunch, it turned out, runs underneath the entire village and surfaces almost everywhere you look.

Akirudi kupitia kijijini baadaye, Polly aliona mvuke ukipanda si tu kutoka mashimo ya kupikia bali pia kutoka nyufa za kando ya barabara, kutoka mifereji, na kutoka bwawa kubwa la umma lililong'aa rangi ya machungwa iliyokolea katika mwanga wa alasiri. Joto lile lile lililopika chakula cha mchana, ikawa, linapita chini ya kijiji kizima na linajitokeza karibu kila unapoangalia.

That heated water fills a large public bathing park nearby, where a giant pool stays warm year round without a single pump or boiler, along with smaller bathhouses tucked around the village that locals visit as easily as running a bath at home. Iron and minerals dissolved in the water turn it a deep, cloudy orange, which most visitors find strange at first and then oddly beautiful.

Maji hayo yenye joto hujaza bustani kubwa ya kuogelea ya umma iliyo karibu, ambapo bwawa kubwa hubaki na uvuguvugu mwaka mzima bila pampu wala boila hata moja, pamoja na vibanda vidogo vya kuogea vilivyotawanyika kijijini ambavyo wenyeji huvitembelea kwa urahisi kama kujaza beseni la maji nyumbani. Chuma na madini yaliyoyeyuka ndani ya maji huyafanya kuwa ya rangi ya machungwa nzito na yenye ukungu, jambo ambalo wageni wengi huliona la ajabu mwanzoni na kisha zuri kwa namna isiyo ya kawaida.

Some homes even pipe the underground heat directly into their own hot water, skipping the need for a water heater entirely. It occurred to Polly that this whole village runs, quite literally, on the volcano sleeping beneath it, cooking food, warming baths, and heating homes with no fire, no fuel, and no bill for any of it.

Baadhi ya nyumba hata huvuta joto la chini ya ardhi moja kwa moja hadi kwenye maji yao ya moto, na hivyo kuepuka kabisa haja ya hita ya maji. Ilimjia Polly kwamba kijiji hiki chote kinaendeshwa, kihalisi kabisa, na volkano inayolala chini yake, kikipika chakula, kikipasha mabafu na nyumba joto, bila moto, bila mafuta, na bila bili yoyote.

She perched at the edge of the great orange pool for a while, feeling the warmth rise off the water even from a distance, and thought that a place built directly on top of so much heat had found an unusually generous way to live with it.

Alitua kwa muda kwenye ukingo wa bwawa kubwa la rangi ya machungwa, akihisi joto likipanda kutoka majini hata kwa umbali, naye akafikiri kwamba mahali palipojengwa juu kabisa ya joto lingi kiasi hicho palikuwa pamepata njia ya ukarimu wa ajabu ya kuishi nalo.