Fame at last!

This blog is a bit late in writing, but I still want to wallow in my new-found fame. Yes, I was on national TV! I’m on local Yen Bai TV quite a lot as whenever I attend any sort of official ceremony for Women’s Day or New Year, the local camera crew are there, and of course cannot resist a big close-up on the only westerner, especially as she has blonde hair, a source of fascination here. I regularly get people saying, ‘I’ve never met you, but I’ve seen you on TV’ and I think this is quite usual for volunteers who live in rural areas.
However, this time, I hit the big time with my primetime spot on VTV1. It was a programme about the British Council conference which I attended in Ho Chi Minh City in December. I think my blog focussed more on the karaoke than the content of the conference! This programme was focussing particularly on Yen Bai and my head kept popping up all the time! I actually got to watch it but it was sheer luck, as the evening that it was broadcast I was at my friend’s house and she had the TV on. We recognised a teacher who works in Yen Bai, and then suddenly my face appeared! Quite a lot of the VSO volunteers who attended also share my fame, but unfortunately nobody has video recorders here so I haven’t got it on tape.
The next day I got a few phonecalls from my friends in Yen Bai saying that they saw me on TV, and the head of the English department said, ‘Sarah, you look very beautiful on television’ – compliment or insult?!