Built From What They Had

The chapel on Lamb Holm is two army huts end to end, which is the first thing anyone notices and the last thing anyone remembers. A caretaker was unlocking it when Polly arrived, an unhurried man with a ring of keys. "What is your job?" she asked him, and he said he opened the doors in the morning, closed them at night, and repainted what the salt air took off in between.

Kanisa dogo la Lamb Holm ni vibanda viwili vya jeshi vilivyounganishwa ncha kwa ncha, jambo la kwanza ambalo kila mtu hulitambua na la mwisho ambalo mtu yeyote hulikumbuka. Mtunzaji alikuwa akilifungua Polly alipowasili, mtu asiye na haraka mwenye pete ya funguo. "Kazi yako ni ipi?" akamuuliza, naye akasema kwamba hufungua milango asubuhi, huifunga usiku, na katikati ya hayo hupaka rangi upya kile ambacho hewa ya chumvi imekiondoa.

Inside, the huts disappear. Italian prisoners of war were brought here in the nineteen forties to work on the sea barriers, and they asked for somewhere to worship. What they got was corrugated metal. What they made of it was a vaulted ceiling, a stone chancel, a wrought iron screen and a painted altarpiece, and one of them, a painter named Domenico Chiocchetti, led the work.

Ndani, vile vibanda vinatoweka. Wafungwa wa vita Waitaliano waliletwa hapa katika miaka ya arobaini ili kufanya kazi kwenye vizuizi vya bahari, nao wakaomba mahali pa kuabudia. Walichopewa ni bati. Walichokitengeneza ni dari lililopinda, madhabahu ya mawe, kizuizi cha chuma kilichofuliwa na sanamu ya altare iliyopakwa rangi, na mmoja wao, mchoraji aitwaye Domenico Chiocchetti, ndiye aliyeongoza kazi hiyo.

"What do you need to complete the work?" is the question the camp had to answer. They asked for cement, and were given cement. Everything else came out of what the camp was throwing away. The screen is scrap iron worked cold. The candle holders are corned beef tins. The stone of the chancel is plasterboard, painted so carefully that you have to lean in before it admits what it is.

"Unahitaji nini ili kukamilisha kazi?" ndilo swali ambalo kambi ilipaswa kulijibu. Waliomba saruji, nao wakapewa saruji. Kila kitu kingine kilitoka katika vitu ambavyo kambi ilikuwa ikivitupa. Kile kizuizi ni chuma chakavu kilichofuliwa bila moto. Vishikilia mishumaa ni makopo ya nyama. Jiwe la madhabahu ni ubao wa plasta, uliopakwa rangi kwa uangalifu kiasi kwamba lazima usogee karibu kabla haujakiri ulivyo.

The caretaker had left a small hand tool on the sill. "Could you show me how to use this tool?" Polly asked, and he did, and the explanation went past her the first time. "Could you explain that again?" He did that too. Then he went back to his paint, and Polly looked up at a ceiling that is flat metal pretending to be a curve, and holds the pretence from every seat in the room.

Mtunzaji alikuwa ameacha kifaa kidogo cha mkono dirishani. "Waweza kunionyesha jinsi ya kutumia kifaa hiki?" Polly akauliza, naye akamwonyesha, lakini maelezo yakampita mara ya kwanza. "Waweza kunieleza tena?" Akafanya hivyo pia. Kisha akarudi kwenye rangi yake, na Polly akatazama juu kwenye dari la bati bapa linalojifanya limepinda, nalo hushikilia hadaa hiyo kutoka kila kiti chumbani.