After having tea, I needed to use the bathroom, but at the Lm300 million Mater Dei Hospital no one saw it necessary to include “public toilets” among the many, many direction indicators. If they did, I did not see one among those for brown, yellow, red and green wards, facilities, outpatients, chapel and other nicely presented signs.

I was not prepared to show the reception, or customer care staff, that the distress I was in was to be attributed to my bladder, so I had to keep my reject fluid inside me, until I relieved myself elsewhere.

It is a beautiful building, of course. And they will need an army of cleaners to keep all that glass squeaky clean, as it was when I saw it. The savings on light energy will more than be made up for in charges for cleaner services.

I had heard, from one of the staff, that with the new hospital only the building had changed; that everything else remained the same. So I was not really surprised when the service I received when I went to buy a snack was not so much state-of the-art, as the hospital has been described.

The girl who served me the qassatata seemed to be sleep walking, and though I also asked for tea and she charged me for it, she did not indicate where I could have it served to me. I had to ask. I thought the 75c for the tea and qassatata reasonable.

I was hugely disappointed in the chapel. It is very roomy, has a very high ceiling, and there is lots of marble. It is very nice to look at, very tastefully done, not at all ostentatious.

But the walls are all large squares of clear glass, and at 8am on 18 December, when I was there, the bright morning light was already flooding in. It happened to be a clear day. In summer at that time it will be glaringly bright.

Now I ask you, can you have proper communion with God in all that eye-hurting brightness?

Whoever designed that chapel is someone who has not been accustomed to going to church in Malta, where the light is diffused. At St Luke’s the chapel used to be almost dark inside, if I remember correctly. At Mater Dei they should hang some dark heavy curtains, to exclude the bright sunlight. In all that brightness I felt I could not effectively communicate with my Maker.

C. Galea

Rabat