The Town That Lives In One Building

This whole town lives indoors. Send this to the person who complains about their neighbours. In Alaska, on a cold grey bay, there is a town called Whittier, and almost everyone in it lives in the same building.

Mji huu wote unaishi ndani. Tuma hii kwa mtu anayelalamika kuhusu majirani zake. Huko Alaska, kwenye ghuba yenye baridi na kijivu, kuna mji uitwao Whittier, na karibu kila mtu ndani yake anaishi katika jengo moja.

The building is fourteen floors high and was built for the army long ago. Now it holds flats, a shop, a post office, a police station, a small clinic and a church. The mayor, the doctor and the person who sells you milk all live upstairs from each other. When it snows, and it snows a great deal, nobody has to go outside at all. The children reach the school through a tunnel under the ground.

Jengo hilo lina ghorofa kumi na nne na lilijengwa kwa ajili ya jeshi zamani. Sasa lina nyumba, duka, posta, kituo cha polisi, kliniki ndogo na kanisa. Meya, daktari na mtu anayekuuzia maziwa wote wanaishi ghorofa juu ya wenzao. Theluji inaponyesha, na hunyesha sana, hakuna anayehitaji kutoka nje kabisa. Watoto hufika shuleni kupitia handaki lililoko chini ya ardhi.

Getting into the town is stranger still. Cars come in through one narrow tunnel cut straight through a mountain, and that tunnel is shared with trains, so everybody takes turns. At night it closes and nobody drives in or out. The town simply stays where it is, warm and lit, one tall building standing in the snow with mountains all around it.

Kuingia mjini huko ni jambo la ajabu zaidi. Magari huingia kupitia handaki moja jembamba lililochongwa moja kwa moja kupitia mlima, na handaki hilo hutumiwa pia na treni, hivyo kila mtu husubiri zamu yake. Usiku hufungwa na hakuna anayeingia au kutoka. Mji unabaki mahali ulipo, ukiwa na joto na mwanga, jengo moja refu likisimama katika theluji likizungukwa na milima pande zote.