Measuring up

I still have some stories from over the weekend to write up, but before then I just wanted to write about today while it was fresh in my mind.

We had a computer class before lunch. We currently have about 28 computers working, which is just enough to start bringing classes in. Sadly 5 minutes into today's lesson there was a power failure. Every time there's a power failure all the computers switch off and it takes 5-10mins to get all the system back up again. To make matters worse, the kids don't sit there patiently while Gary and I run around resetting computers, but instead they try and do it for themselves, clicking 'okay' or 'cancel' at random, trying to guess at the admin password, or, completely lost, end up fiddling with the security settings. Finally, we managed to get all the computers going again and the kids restarted their typing exercise.

And then there was another power cut. Class over.

As I was recovering over lunch, Fr Sebastian called me asking if I could accompany one of the teachers to go take photos of the other teams taking part in the Jesus Cup (great name). Jesus Cup seems to be a big deal here. From what I can gather it's a large competition spread over a number of weekends starting a week on Saturday including football, volleyball, basketball (etc.) singing, playing instruments, performances and so on. It's organised every year by Bosco Boys and about 17 different youth projects from around Nairobi take part.

Fr Sebastian told me that the teacher was leaving at 1.30. I looked at my watch. It read 1.35. 'Righto, I'll go get my camera then!' and dashed off.

Typically, we left sometime after 2.

On the way to wherever it was we were headed first, we suddenly turned off the main road and started driving down some residential streets. Isaac, a Kenyan volunteer explained to me, 'There's a checkpoint ahead and the driver doesn't have a licence.' Good good.

We arrive at what Isaac tells me is a young offenders' institute for girls. They're ready for us, all uniformed up in their football kits. I notice that their shirts look very new. And they're all Chelsea tops. And the shorts are Chelsea ones too. 'The Chelsea team came here recently', Isaac explains.

So, now to work. I had been told to come take photos of all the participating teams. What I didn't realise was that we were also coming to measure the participants' height and weight. Isaac took down each girl's name, asked them to stand on the scales we had brought, and the teacher then used a measuring stick to work out their height.

'And what shall I do?', I asked.

'Here, take this', the teacher said, handing me a scientific calculator.

'Ah, I see. You want me to divide their height by their weight.'

'No, add them together.'

The rules, apparently, said that you couldn't play in the girls' under 17s football team if your combined height in cm and weight in kg was more than 225. But that's crazy, I insisted to Isaac, becoming increasingly agitated by the arbitrariness of it all. You're equating 1cm with 1kg. It's blatant discrimination against tall people, I argued. Isaac agreed. 'But those are the rules!'

Laughing, I accepted his argument. In fact, I laughed throughout the whole bizarre measuring process as one by one the girls came forward to be told their weight and height. Everyone must have thought that this mzungu was an utter nutcase. But I wasn't quite so pleased when two of the girls were told they weren't eligible to play for the football team because their scores were over 225. It's crazy! At Bosco Boys it wouldn't matter so much because the tall/heavy players could turn out for the over 17s team which doesn't have a size limit, but sadly I'm not convinced that there were enough girls at the Juve to form an over 17s team...

Anyway, I took a photo of the football and volleyball teams and we said our goodbyes. The next stop was Utume, a centre run by Bosco Boys as a preparatory step between being on the streets and coming to stay at Bosco Boys proper. Some of the kids were very light - imagine a 10-year-old only weighing 27kg! - but on the plus side it meant that they all qualified for their age range.

Tomorrow I'm told we have the remaining 15 centres to go visit and reenact the same measuring farce. Seeing as it took us most of the afternoon just to get through two projects today, I have a gut feeling our merry band of measurers fully equipped with measuring stick, scales, calculator and camera will be zooming round Nairobi for most of the weekend.