Rainbow Rabbis - Mongol Rally 2008

Will we make it? Lo lograremos???

2008-03-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

Today The Rainbow Rabbis were on TV and it was (hopefully) a success!

We want YOU, yes YOU, to donate though, and we are giving you many options!
Here are two:

- Go to http://www.willwemakeit.com/therainbowrabbis and help us raise the £1000 (around $2000) we need for charity! You can donate as little as $1,20!

- Click on the Google Ads here on the left!...and then keep on clicking! It's free!

Hoy Los Rainbow Rabbis salieron en TV y fue (esperamos) un éxito.

Ahora queremos que TU, si TU, nos dones dinero o te conviertas en nuestro patrocinante! Te vamos a dar varias opciones. Aquí van:

- Ve a http://www.willwemakeit.com/therainbowrabbis y ayúdanos a recolectar los $2000 que necesitamos darle a las ONGs! Puedes hasta donar solo $1.20 (Bs. 2600 ó Bs. F. 2.6)!!!!!!

- Hagan click aquí a la izquierda en los banners de Google, es gratis y nos da dinero!!
- Ve a la págian de Sponsors y explora todas las opciones que tienes de convertirte en nuestro patrocinante, tenemos mucho que ofrecer!

The Rainbow Rabbis.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Check it out!!!

2008-03-12T08:32:00.000-07:00

Hey peeps,

So The Rainbow Rabbis are going out in full force this week on a sort of promotional tour. Well, at least in Venezuela. Today at around 2:30 pm (Vzla Time) one of our members will be making an appearance in Globovision TV channel. That's national TV!. If you want to see it, check http://globovision.batanga.com/, you might be able to access it from there!!

Tomorrow it's radio. Various interviews on Unión Radio will appear! Also, keep an eye out for El Universal, we might show up there too!

The point of all of this is to raise the money we and the charities need! If you don't feel like donating (you can donate as little as $1.20) you can click on the Google Ads here on the left and we get $0.10 every time you click! Check it out people, in your times of procrastination.

Btw, you can join our Facebook group here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=30310155320

Keep on trucking,

The Rainbow Rabbis.

Suggestions?

2008-02-28T21:07:00.000-08:00

So, we are a very responsible team (cough, cough), and we need to be prepared for any bumps we find in the road, or interesting obstacles we find. In my mind I have a list of stuff we need to do, but maybe you have some suggestions for us too. Here are some of mine:

- Buy "Mechanics for Dummies" and learn it by heart. Preferably an edition focusing on really old cars prone to breaking down (eg. probably our car).

- Learn some kind of self defense techniques in case we encounter an evil ninja clan determined to takes us to their secret cave, brainwash us and incorporate us into their growing number of fighters used for eventual world domination.

- Buy "How to make great tasting, healthy food without fire, pots, pans or water" 2008 Edition.

- Learn Russian, Turkish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, Mongolian, among others, in order to communicate or at least ask were the closest bathroom/bush is.

- Taking a course on how to get out of difficult situations. Examples include attempted arrest, deportation, no gasoline for 2 days, no people for 4 days, "1001 conversation topics for long trips", etc.

Any other ideas??

The Rainbow Rabbis.

The Soundtrack To Our Adventure.

2008-02-25T15:36:00.001-08:00

The soundtrack to our adventure is slowly shaping up. We already have the Chingis Khan song by the german band. Priceless.

There is probably going to be some Raffaella Carrà involved at some point, obviously, as her lyrics and music can be incorporated into practically every situation in life.

I want to propose a new song, to be played on a hot night in some desert somewhere. It is perfectly ethnic, yet dance-able. "Electric Feel" by MGMT. I recommend it to all, and I assure you you'll fall in love with it when you first listen to it. I encourage you to comment or recommend any new songs for our soundtrack, we will need probably THOUSANDS of them to take us through the 10,000 miles of this trip, or at least until we run out of battery.

Listen to it here!! www.myspace.com/mgmt

Cheers.

Up and running again!

2008-02-23T07:32:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Rainbow Rabbis - Mongol Rally 2008 team website! The new version of the website is finally ready. We've been working night and day to get this ready as soon as possible and here we are with lots of brand new features.

Click on our wonderful Uncle Sam to donate some bucks to our sponsored charities!
Brand New Tag Board, leave your messages for us and chat in there.
Subscribe to our newsletter and mailing list. All you have to do is put your email in the box in the right sidebar and join our network to be updated on our progress

Also the graphics is all new and we have loads of things coming up soon.
Stay tuned,

Route

2008-02-23T07:07:00.000-08:00

This will most likely be the route we are going to take to reach Mongolia:

We are thinking of a little off-road in the Baltiks, or we might as well just change the route completely by the beginning of the Rally. This is roughly the way we think we'll go.

Mongol Rally 2008

2008-02-22T20:21:00.001-08:00

From Milan - Italy to Ulan Bator - Mongolia. By car.
3 weeks to do it. 3 weeks to survive.
Artemis, Elad, Matteo, Alejandro.
They've crossed the Latinamerican Continent, lived in a Nepalese village, farmed in Northern Ireland, almost died falling off a gate, survived the IB and Amsterdam, danced non-stop and lots more... It really seems like they've done it all.
But one thing.
Crossing half of the world, seven countries, two deserts, with a 1000cc second-hand car, no assistance, no GPS. How does that sound?

Welcome to Mongol Rally 2008 and the Rainbow Rabbis team!
The 19th July from London, Milan and Madrid more than 200 teams will leave with one direction: East. And one goal: reach Mongolia whatever it takes.

The main aim of this adventure is to raise money for charity. The Mongol Rally teams must donate AT LEAST 1000 £ to charities. Obviously our aim is to give much more than 1000 so you guys really need to help us however you can!

Anything else you want to know about the event?
Write to us at info@rainbowrabbis.com

Our Charities

2008-02-22T11:24:00.000-08:00

As you all know, to participate in the Mongol Rally, all the teams have to donate 1000£ (pounds) to at least two official charities of the Event. We picked Mercy Corps Mongolia and the Christina Noble's Children Foundation and we hope to raise much more than a thousand pounds with your help! You can find below a description of the work these organizations do.

To help us supporting these organizations please donate on www.willwemakeit.com/the_rainbow_rabbis or cast your vote on our adventure and donate a pound to our charities!

Mercy Corps Mongolia

In Mongolia, Mercy Corps supports rural communities and herding families through economic,
educational and agricultural programmes. Over the past six years Mercy Corps has established a strong reputation across the vast Gobi region, and continues to work with business associations and local organisations to ensure a robust economy that preserves ancient traditions.
In 2007, the Mongol Rally raised over £100,000 to support our Training, Advocacy and Networking (TAN) programme. With your sponsorship for the Mongol Rally in 2008, this programme will continue to enable communities in several aimags (regions) to
develop small community led projects, addressing the priority issues affecting the communities
themselves.

These projects range from setting up Ger (traditional Mongolian felt tent) kindergartens, building children's playgrounds, and establishing youth development centres to building wells and environmentally friendlywaste management.

ALWAYS REMEMBER

£5 provides nutritious, high energy biscuits for an elementary school student every school day for 6 weeks
£11 provides emergency cooking supplies and bedding for one displaced family
£15 helps prevent deadly respiratory infections in Guatemalan children by training 14 community health workers.
£25 can provide clean drinking water for 15 children.
£35 can provide shelter, blankets and basic emergency supplies to keep an earthquake survivor alive.
£40 can provide clean drinking water for 5 families.
£50 can build a new latrine for a community.
£100 can provide water containers, cooking utensils, blankets and a floor mat to help protect a homeless Afghan family.
£144 can provide a loan to enable a family to set a business in Kyrgyzstan.
£350 can accommodate two homeless Afghan families for 6 months.
£3,900 can build a new house for a family.

Christina Noble's Children Foundation

Christina Noble's Children Foundation is an international Foundation which is aimed to serve children in need of emergency and long-term medical care, nutritional rehabilitation, educational opportunities, vocational training, job placement and the protection of children at risk of economic and sexual exploitation.
They are very active in Vietnam and in Mongolia. We are supporting their project with the Mongolian children.
The greatest challenge that the Foundation identified in Mongolia was to reach into families and try to help them escape this cycle of poverty by helping to keep the children in school and at home. It was from this need that the Sponsorship Project was born.
The Foundation also identified a need among children on the street who were not part of a gang and who were trying to fend for themselves by begging and scavenging. Some said that they dreamed of being put into prison "because it is warm there, and they feed you". Christina resolved to open a shelter or sanctuary for these children.
The projects that were and are carried out in Mongolia are: the Sponsorship Project, the Sunshine Ger Village Project, the Prison Education Project, the Healthcare Project, and the Give Ger a Fund project.
You can look at the specific of these projects on the Foundation's website www.cncf.org and if you want to ask any questions about their work feel free to do so.

The Team

2008-02-22T10:59:00.000-08:00

The Rainbow Rabbis are one of the youngest team of the Mongol Rally 2008 and surely the most multicultural. 4 team members, 4 different nationalities.

ELAD - From the USA, 19 years old, currently volunteering in Nepal in a gap year.

ALEJANDRO - From Venezuela, 20 years old, studying at Vassar College in New York State.

ARTEMIS - From Cyprus, 20 years old, she's studying in Barcelona

MATTEO - From Italy, 19 years old, studying and working in Cagliari (Sardinia)

The car dilemma

2008-01-11T16:59:00.000-08:00

It will be a very hard choice, and we are still very doubtful about what car to pick. We do not have much time and right now we have 4 cars to choose from.
1) Suzuki Sj 410

PROS
It looks just about ready to take up long off road trips and it really inspires for surviving the Gobi desert. Furthermore it is the only 1000cc off-road you can still find in the market integer and at a good price.
CONS
Old Mongol Rally teams do not suggest this car, it apparently breaks down quite often and it is really hard to fix it. We would like to postpone the trade between Artemis and the camels as much as we can. So...

2) Fiat Panda

PROS
It's the old Italian peasants' car, experienced with all sort of grounds and loads. It is a very old car so it is very difficult to break it, and if you, break it, then it's easy to fix it cause it does not have many technological games going on in there. It is also pretty cheap...
CONS
Well... It's quite small, and bloody uncomfortable, it's as slow as hell, and it was voted the noisiest car ever. It does have its defects hey!

3) Citroen Mehari

PROS
Do I even have to mention the pros of this car? I mean it's just amazing, it screams MONGOL RALLY and COOL! With a little bit of pimping out it can be perfect. And the same point made about the Fiat Panda is valid here: it's an old car, it does not break.
CONS
Very hard to find in the second hand market and when you find it, it's pretty damn expensive. Mehari really is the best of them all.

4) Renault 4

PROS
This is BY FAR my favourite pick. It's SO Rainbow Rabbis. The shape, the look, the spirit of this car are exactly what we need. Besides is old, unbreakable and pretty high up from the ground which means it's good for the desert and steppe.
CONS
It's a VERY old car...