我從參加蒙古馬拉松當中發現自我

How I found myself running in a Mongolian marathon

(本文下載pdf.檔)

Story and photos by Scott Brills

The Rotarian -- May 2010

扶輪人 - 2010年5月

3520地區2003-2004年度文化大使獎學生宋汶璇Cathy(Sung Wen-Hsuan)

去年夏天，美國密西根州的一位年輕扶輪社員駕駛一輛2001 Chevy Metro行經14 0,000英里路程，從英國到蒙古。

Last summer, a young Rotarian from Michigan, USA, set out to drive a 2001 Chevy Metro with 140,000 miles on it from England to Mongolia.

蒙古汽車競賽大會—同為慈善募捐活動與瘋狂的冒險之旅--於2004年第一次舉辦，共6輛汽車參與競賽。2009年則有超過400個團隊參加。參賽者可自行選擇路線到蒙古首都烏蘭巴托，但他們的汽車引擎不能超過1.2公升且不能有全球定位系統。迷路是或多或少的問題，而成功到達蒙古的這些車會捐獻給慈善機構。

The Mongol Rally-- equal parts charity fundraiser and lunatic odyssey- was dreamed up by two bored Englishmen and held for the first time in 2004 with six cars. In 2009, more than 400 teams took part. Ralliers can choose their own route to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, but their cars must have an engine no larger than 1.2 liters -- and no GPS. Getting lost is more or less the point, although those cars that make it to Mongolia are donated to charity.

「你應該會有一趟冒險，而非在一個幼兒班，因此，如果天空掉落在你的頭上，用汽車擋風玻璃刮水器支撐並持續進行。」汽車競賽的網站寫明。「如果你擔心，就留在家裡。」

“You are supposed to be on an adventure, not in a nursery class, so if the sky does fall on your head, prop it up with a windscreen wiper and carry on,” the rally website reads. “If you’re worried, stay at home.”

斯科特•布里爾斯(Scott Brills)無法抗拒這個誘人的鼓動。布里爾斯(Brills)是West Bloomfield扶輪社的社員，他和朋友科林•奧托(Collin Otto)以努力工作隊名募集1,650美元給汽車競賽的其中一個官方慈善機構--蒙古救難組織(Mercy Corps Mongolia)。當時26歲的布里爾斯(Brills)與25歲的奧托(Otto)籌集額外的7,000美元，用來幫助建立一所位在蒙古的幼稚園，該項計劃是布里爾斯(Brills)所屬扶輪社與Bayanzurkh 100扶輪社在烏蘭巴托的一項聯合計劃。

It was a siren call that Scott Brills couldn’t resist. Brills, a member of the Rotary Club of West Bloomfield, and his friend Collin Otto, took the team name Hardly Working and raised $1,650 for Mercy Corps Mongolia, one of the rally’s official charities. Brills, then 26, and Otto, 25, then collected an additional $7,000 to help build and outfit a kindergarten in Mongolia, a joint project of Brills’s club and the Rotary Club of Bayanzurkh 100 in Ulaanbaatar.

布里爾斯(Brills)說：「我們決定開車到蒙古尋找冒險，冒險是我們知道最明確的事。」他是2007-08年度團體研究交換團的團員，該團隊成員來自6380地區（涵蓋部份的安大略省、加拿大、美國密歇根州、美國）到2440地區的土耳其。「我們停止工作，開始一個為期半年的募捐活動，為了一個看似荒謬地試圖開車橫跨地面三分之一並提供資金幫助一個許多人民從未聽說過幼稚園的國家建立一所幼稚園。」

"We decided to drive to Mongolia in search of adventure, and adventure is most definitely what we got," says Brills, a 2007-08 Group Study Exchange team member from District 6380 (parts of Ontario, Canada, and Michigan, USA) to District 2440 Turkey. "Starting off with a half-year fundraising campaign for a seemingly ludicrous attempt to drive across a third of the earth's surface to deliver funds to assist in building and outfitting a kindergarten in a country many people had never even heard of, we had our work cut out for us.

「在10,000英里的路程中，我們遇上邊防警衛靠近攀談，被腐敗警察囚禁，困在哈薩克斯坦和烏茲別克斯坦間的無人區，甚至在塔吉克斯坦中間的一萬英尺高原上汽車突然熄火，僅舉幾例我們遇到極可笑的不幸事故。」

"Throughout the 10,000-mile trip, we were accosted by border guards, held captive by corrupt police, stranded in no man's land between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and even had our vehicle die on a 10,000-foot plateau in the middle of Tajikistan -- just to name a few of our hilarious mishaps.

「但是9個星期旅程期間我們所面對的所有挑戰與我們獲得的許多實際經驗、遇到的人、看到的風景，以及幫忙改變的生活相較之下顯得不重要了。」

"But all of the challenges we faced over the nine-week journey are minor compared to the many positive experiences we had, the people we met, the scenery we witnessed, and the lives we helped change."