She did not cop the coveted Miss World Crown nor was she named among the finalists, but Miss Guyana, Olive Gopaul, still feels she came out a winner because she "proudly represented" her country. "It was a worthwhile experience and I have learnt so many different things," Gopaul said when asked to describe her stay in South Africa.

The Miss World Pageant was held in Sun City, west Johannesburg, South Africa on November 16 and 18-year-old Miss Nigeria, Agbani Darego copped the coveted crown.

Dressed in a light pink pants suit, with buttons down the front of the top and wearing her crown, Gopaul's eyes sparkled as she described her experience in South Africa to the Stabroek News.

She felt that she had become a more rounded person as for almost a month she was in the company of intelligent women from different parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds. Ninety-six countries participated in the contest.

Gopaul said it was difficult for her to describe some of the feelings, "but the experience has made me a stronger person." The 22-year-old said that her capabilities have been greatly improved from her month's stay in South Africa, adding that she now had friends all over the world.

The St Stanislaus College Spanish teacher will use her experience to make her students into better boys and girls. How does she propose to do this? Gopaul said she would tell the students about her experience and how it made her a stronger person. She would also point out to them that she faced numerous odds, but still came out a "winner."

Gopaul also plans to use her experience to assist the contestants who would take part in the Miss Guyana pageant next year.

She is a Spanish teacher but she did have some problems understanding the language while she was there as she pointed out that she learnt Spanish in a classroom environment and never visited a Spanish-speaking country. She also noted that she learnt the Spanish spoken in the 'mother country' Spain and some of the other countries spoke slightly different Spanish.

She was lucky that in her group most of the girls spoke English or Spanish so there was no real language barrier for her.

Gopaul did her photo shoot for voting online in Capetown at the Table Bay Hotel. Being a nature lover, she enthused about Table Bay Mountain, one of South Africa's landmarks and "one of the wonders of the world." According to her it got its name be-cause it was a very high mountain, which did not have a peak, instead the top was flat like a table. She could have seen the mountain from her room.

But all was not rosy in South Africa for Gopaul, who said one of the most disappointing things about her trip was being told by one of the Miss World organisers that she would be unable to perform her talent piece. This affected Gopaul so much that she further described it as the most disappointing time of her life. Before being told she would not be required to perform her talent piece, which was a dramatic poem, Gopaul recalled that the session where they were expected to perform their piece for the organisers was put off on so many occasions that it became "very frustrating."

"For me, what kept me going is that I always thought that I am doing this for my country. That is what kept me going," she said with a sad smile.

Gopaul felt the organisers misinterpreted her poem. She said that the poem talks about Guyana's culture and the organiser asked her what made Guyana special with six races when England had 13. The poem speaks about slavery and 'the white man' and she felt that the line he might have objected to was: "Do not destroy with me with poverty, cocaine, viruses, war, racism and genocide," which she said was the climax of the poem. She said that it was at this point that she was expected to break down and start crying.

With just the hint of tears glistening at the corner of her eyes, Gopaul said that she "cried and cried so much" after she was told she could not perform her piece, as she had worked for three months on the poem. Gopaul was not allowed to rehearse her poem with the backdrop she requested as a DVD was not provided, nor was she allowed to use the music she had compiled on a CD for each line of the poem. She said she was told she would have to get a publisher for the music.

The young woman recalled that after she finished rehearsing the poem for the second time the man got up on stage and asked those present if they liked and understood the poem. Before they could have answered, he said: "See, they don't understand. This is not fit for the show. You can't do it. What you want to do here is going to take three days for you to send this concept over to the audience because it dates back so many years. And you want to do this in less that three minutes. Frankly, you cannot perform on the show, I am sorry." She said she almost broke down the tears on the stage adding "that was the most disappointing moment of my life."

It was said that the talent piece was not used in the point system to choose the finalist, but Gopaul noted that most of the girls who were finalists were in the talent show.

Gopaul said that she was confident she would have been in the final ten, she disclosed that even her roommate, Miss Peru told her after the pageant that she really thought that she would have been in the final ten.

Gopaul was in the Global Beauties top ten and she noted that that automatically assisted one in making it in the semi final.

"I know what I am capable of doing. I know myself and I knew there was a spot for me in the top ten. Likewise I knew there were spots for Miss Venezuela, Miss India and Miss Brazil."

Gopaul said that she was surprised rather than disappointed when she realized that she was not in the final ten.

"I could have either allowed it to make me or break me," she said.

"For me, just being there and being able to put my country on the map again that was rewarding enough for me. I couldn't ask for anything more. I have been able to market my country with pride and joy," a smiling Gopaul said.

Out of the 96 contestants she was closest to Miss Northern Ireland, Angela McCarthy, whom she was able to speak to on the telephone when she visited Ireland briefly before she returned to Guyana.

Gopaul fulfilled one of her dreams as she had always wanted to do some country-hopping and she was able to do that on her trip.

The young beauty will continue promoting turtle conservation, which she used as her platform.