Miss UB

"Has he let the suspense build for long enough?" you might ask. Yes, he has. Here's the much overdo story of the 11-hour beauty pageant...

Last weekend was the Mr. & Miss UB (University of Botswana) pageant. My friend Robin was a contestant, and so a group of us went to support her. The tickets were on the expensive side, but we were told they included dinner and performances from local artists during breaks in the pageant.

The tickets said the show started at 7pm, so we showed up at 730, thinking we would be fashionably late. They were still setting up the stage and lighting at that point though, and we were told that the show in fact did not include dinner so I swung back to the room to make some food. I hustled back at 8:30 hoping I hadn’t missed anything, but my fears were premature. Not only had the show not started when I got back, but it didn’t end up starting for another three hours.

Despite the delay, we were excited to see Robin, who had attended daily practices for the two weeks leading up the event and was always bubbling with stories of the people she met and all the work she was doing to prepare. The show opened with pairs of guys and girls coming out together in casual wear. Robin did great, and she was paired up with the most popular boy, which didn’t hurt.

Then there was an hour break while a local rap duo performed. Next, the contestants came out as a group for a few minutes, and then there was another break while another performance was set up. We had been at the pageant for five hours at that point and a friend of mine and I were sick of the breaks and were getting hungry, so we went back to the dorms for a bit. We came back and caught the swimsuit competition. Robin was full of confidence, despite having to walk in heels while wearing a bikini with bright lights on her from every angle. With the first two rounds complete, she seemed to be a contender for the top five, which is what she needed to move on.

Next there was a group dance. This was an area was a strength for Robin, but she ended up in the back of the formation, where her potential to outshine the other girls was limited.

The final round was formal eveningwear. All of the guys’ suits were too big for them, which was amusing. It was as if they all borrowed them from their dads, or maybe the school supplied them without getting measurements. The girls looked fantastic, though. Robin had on a gorgeous yellow dress that she showed-off very gracefully. We were all screaming as loud as we could whenever Robin came out, hoping the judges would be influenced by audience approval.

At this point it was around 4:30 in the morning, and they were setting up another performance while the judges deliberated. We couldn’t handle sitting around anymore and went back to hang out in the dorms for a while. Around 5:30 we figured the pageant was over but that we might as well catch the sunrise since we had made it all the way through the night. But when we went outside we could still here music coming from the auditorium. We swung by and, sure enough, the pageant was still going. They had selected the top five (Robin didn’t make it, which was a fluke) and now the judges were deliberating again after a round of interviews. We went and caught the sunrise while the judges deliberated, and we came back to hear the final results come in at 6:45 in the morning.

So that’s the story of the 11-hour beauty pageant. It was a blast, though the end is somewhat of a blur. Robin said she had a great time, though her legs felt like rubber after spending the whole night in heels. A lot of the people that had originally come for Robin had bailed by two or three in the morning, so we were able to say that we had stuck it out for her. I finally got into bed around 7:30 and I won’t say how late into the day I slept.

A rushed bowl of macaroni with fried green peppers, onions, carrots and tomatoes for dinner…