Built From What They Had

The chapel on Lamb Holm is two army huts joined end to end. A caretaker was unlocking it when Polly arrived. "What is your job?" she asked him. He opened the doors in the morning, he said, and painted what the salt air took off.

Kanisa dogo la Lamb Holm ni vibanda viwili vya jeshi vilivyounganishwa. Mtunzaji alikuwa akilifungua Polly alipowasili. "Kazi yako ni ipi?" akamuuliza. Hufungua milango asubuhi, akasema, na hupaka rangi kile ambacho hewa ya chumvi imekiondoa.

Inside, the huts disappear. Italian prisoners of war came here in the nineteen forties to work on the sea barriers. They asked for somewhere to worship. They were given corrugated metal. What they made was a painted ceiling, an iron screen and an altarpiece. A painter named Domenico Chiocchetti led the work.

Ndani, vibanda vinatoweka. Wafungwa wa vita Waitaliano walikuja hapa katika miaka ya arobaini kufanya kazi kwenye vizuizi vya bahari. Waliomba mahali pa kuabudia. Wakapewa bati. Walichokitengeneza ni dari lililopakwa rangi, kizuizi cha chuma na sanamu ya altare. Mchoraji aitwaye Domenico Chiocchetti aliongoza kazi.

"What do you need to complete the work?" That was the question. They asked for cement, and they got cement. Everything else came from what the camp threw away. The screen is scrap iron. The candle holders are old meat tins. The stone of the chancel is painted plasterboard.

"Unahitaji nini ili kukamilisha kazi?" Hilo ndilo lilikuwa swali. Waliomba saruji, nao wakapata saruji. Kila kitu kingine kilitoka katika takataka za kambi. Kizuizi ni chuma chakavu. Vishikilia mishumaa ni makopo ya zamani ya nyama. Jiwe la madhabahu ni ubao wa plasta uliopakwa rangi.

A small hand tool sat on the sill. "Could you show me how to use this tool?" Polly asked. He showed her, and she missed it. "Could you explain that again?" He did. Then she looked up at a flat metal ceiling that pretends to be a curve.

Kifaa kidogo cha mkono kilikuwa dirishani. "Waweza kunionyesha jinsi ya kutumia kifaa hiki?" Polly akauliza. Akamwonyesha, lakini hakuelewa. "Waweza kunieleza tena?" Akafanya hivyo. Kisha akatazama juu kwenye dari bapa la bati linalojifanya limepinda.