Mission to Passion: Newspaper article gives Sandra a boost to update!

Newspaper article gives Sandra a boost to update!

Wow, it has been 3 months since I last wrote?
There are no excuses, however, I'd like to give this newly published Vietnamese newspaper article credit for pushing me in posting this update.... today as opposed to.. who knows....





CLICK HERE FOR THE ARTICLE WRITTEN BY NHU LICH


It's only published in Vietnamese, unfortunately. I tried GOOGLE-translating a paragraph to English and this is how it went:


Vietnamese girl's new life
22/02/2013 3:25
Planned to travel round the world but when it came to Vietnam, the things that girls Sandra Lane (30 years old) hardly "off his shirt".

The intimate relationship

One evening last week, we came across Sandra is teaching free dance for disadvantaged children at the Little Rose Shelter (District 7, Ho Chi Minh City). This beautiful girl applying both English and Vietnamese capital of his little to guide, but they are ... shook his head, not understanding. Not deterred Sandra patience perform each action, use body language to the children imitating and repeating until maturity.



OK. Well, this article has nothing to do with an "intimate relationship" nor has it to do with taking a "shirt off ?"
Google Translate FAIL. However the rest does make sense; the article is about my new and unexpected life in Saigon, and how I try to help underprivileged children by volunteering and offering weekly dance classes, more specifically to the girls of the Little Rose Shelter (a shelter for girls who are at high risk of abuse).

I will post an English version here when possible. Now I need my mother's help in translating the harder words..... which is pretty much 3/4 of the article ... he heh.....

Now for an UPDATE:

Sadly my back injury is a much bigger issue than previously perceived.
As I continued on with my rather busy and fulfilled life in Saigon, teaching belly dance fusion classes, volunteering at the girls shelter and occasionally at the hospital, belly dancing at an Arabic themed cafe, taking private ballet classes with a Vietnamese ballerina (!!), all while teaching English, my back was only getting worse. Well DUH you may wonder....
Yah you're right, but it was difficult for me to let go when I worked so damn hard to get to that point! But as my father and many others have drilled in my head: HEALTH COMES FIRST.
So bit by bit, I had to let go of all my accomplishments...  and the hardest part was feeling like I let people down, especially those who called me "teacher".

I'm giving a dance workshop at the Ung Buu Hospital for children with cancer.

This is my ballet teacher, Thin. He had just finished performing an AMAZING show at the Saigon Opera.

This is Phuong, the choreographer I met at the circus. She's also a choreographer for this show. You get the link?



After a hard dance practice at the Little Rose Shelter, the girls and I let loose for the camera.
Just moments earlier, journalist Nhu Lich, happened to be having dinner with a social worker and saw the girls and I dance which got her interested in interviewing me... hence the article :)

Western doctors, Vietnamese doctors, medication, complete bed rest.... nothing has worked. Sandra was once again forced to do an unexpected move; return home to Canada for treatment. ( Although... my last couple of weeks of acupuncture did help a bit).


One fateful afternoon, a clueless stranger took my "back-ginity" away.... and now he puts the cherry on top and sends me home. 

 But of course, every cloud has a silver lining. 
And this one, I decided, is going to be a thick one. Not only do I get to see my beloved family and close friends, but my home-ridden self has also used this abundance of time to work on an abandoned past project...  mentioned in my 1st blog (3rd paragraph)