VOA慢速英语:Rescuing Masai Girls From Early Marriage

Priscilla Nangurai of Kajiado, Kenya, retired as a teacher in two thousand five. Today, at the age of sixty-two, she could be living a quiet life in retirement. Instead, she leads an organization at her home called GRACE -- the Girls' Rights, Attention, Care and Rescue Center. She tries to rescue Masai girls from early marriage and make sure they get an education.
肯尼亚Kajiado的教师Priscilla Nangurai于2005年退休了。如今62岁的她原本可以过上安静的退休生活，但她却在家里成立了一家名为“女孩权利关爱、照顾与救援中心”的组织，她想将马萨伊女孩从早婚中解救出来，让她们接受教育。

She has rescued more than seven hundred girls since nineteen eighty-six. She now has fifteen girls at her center, and she is building a dormitory to house up to eighty girls.
从1986年起，她已经营救了七百多个女孩。她的救援中心目前有15个女孩，她正在建造一栋最多容纳80个女孩的宿舍。

In the traditional culture of the Masai people, fathers often promise their young daughters in marriage to older men. Most girls are between the ages of twelve and fourteen, with some even younger. Their bodies are not ready for sex and childbirth. But that is not the only problem. Most of them must also leave school. 
根据马萨伊人的文化传统，父亲总是要将年轻的女儿嫁给老男人。大多数女孩年龄在12到14之间，有的甚至更小。她们的身体还无法进行性生活和生子。但这不是唯一的问题，大多数女孩还必须离校。

Priscilla Nangurai's older sister was forced into marriage at a young age, but demanded that Priscilla receive an education. She says the problem begins when a girl gets "booked" when she is very young, or not even born yet.
Priscilla Nangurai的姐姐就是年幼时被迫结婚的，但她要求让Priscilla上学。她说女孩们在很年幼甚至没出生时就被“预订”了。

PRISCILLA NANGURAI: "Booking is when a parent or a man wants to marry from a certain family. So he can go to the family, and if there are little girls there, he will book. If one of the wives is expectant, he will say, 'I want something from this womb.' And he's allowed to do that."
Priscilla Nangurai：“定亲是家长或男性想要与一个特定家庭结亲，他就可以去到这家，如果这家有小女孩，他就会预定。如果这家其中一名妻子怀孕了，他会说，‘我想要和这个未出生的孩子结婚。’他也可以这么做。”

A fourteen-year-old girl named Roseline has been at the rescue center since two thousand eight. At the age of four she was booked to a man who she thinks was about sixty to seventy years old.
一个名为Roseline 的14岁女孩从2008年起就一直在这个救援中心。在四岁时她被一名男子定亲，当时她认为那名男子大概是六七十岁。

ROSELINE: "Yes, I was booked. But when I knew the person that they booked me, I just talked to Ms. Nangurai. I told her the whole story."
Roseline：“是的，我被预定了，当我知道他们为我预订的这个男人，我就给Nangurai说，我全部都告诉了她。”

Masai culture calls for the man who wants to marry a girl to start paying the girl's father once the booking has been made. Traditionally the payment is made with cows, but today money can also be exchanged.
马萨伊文化要求希望娶一名女子的男性在一定亲时就开始补偿女孩父亲。根据传统补偿一般是奶牛，但如今现金也可以交易。

When the marriage will soon take place, the girl must undergo a custom that some call female circumcision. Others denounce this practice followed in Masai and other cultures as female genital mutilation.
当即将结婚时，女孩必须接受女性割礼这一传统。他人都谴责马萨伊和其它文化遵循的女性割除性器官的这种做法。

A thirteen-year-old girl also named Priscilla was brought to the center at the age of five. Her mother wanted her to be educated. The girl says she is thankful especially for health reasons that she did not have her sex organs cut. She worries that she could have gotten AIDS from unclean tools.
一位也叫Priscilla的13岁女孩5岁时被带到这个中心，她母亲希望她接受教育。女孩说考虑到健康原因她很是感激，因为自己的性器没有被切割。她担心自己会因为不洁工具而感染上艾滋。

PRISCILLA: "They don't circumcise one person with one razor blade.  Maybe when we are two girls, they can use this one to the first girl and then they use it again to another one. So that's why I don't want that."
Priscilla：“行割礼时并非一人用一个刀片。可能两个女孩行割礼时都使用同一个刀片。所以这是我不想行割礼的原因。”