Odessa arrived home on December 17 after spending some three months in England and Nigeria preparing for the Miss World Contest which was shrouded in controversy.

Unlike last year, when Olive Gopaul was welcomed home with a modest reception by the Ministry of Culture, Odessa came into Guyana virtually unannounced.

She left Guyana in early October for London, where she joined the other Miss World contestants and, in early November headed for the Nigerian capital of Abuja. Odessa described the Nigerian people as warm and hospitable, “just like Guyanese”.

She said the Miss World contestants were away from all the controversy that surrounded the pageant being held in the African nation.

A Nigerian Court governed by the Muslim Sharia Law, sentenced Nigerian Amina Lawal to death, by stoning, for bearing a child out of wedlock and there were calls for the contestants to boycott the pageant.

Before leaving Guyana, Odessa said she wanted to lend an active and not a passive voice to Lawal’s cause, and so she preferred attending the pageant.

Odessa feels that Miss World did achieve something for Lawal, as the Nigerian Government has vowed not to allow the sentence to be carried out.

Odessa said all of the Nigerian people she came across seemed not to know about the controversy.

“I loved being in Nigeria and touring around. The experience was beautiful, one that I will never forget”, she said.

One week before the pageant, rioting broke out in the northern state of Kaduna and some 200 people ended up dead.

“We didn’t know anything that was going on until we switched to CNN and we saw that the Miss World Pageant was being blamed for the deaths of 200 people,” Odessa vividly recalled.

A newspaper report that suggested the Muslim Prophet Muhammad would have married one of the delegates, sparked the rioting.

“The reporter should have shown consideration for the …Muslims in Nigeria”, Odessa said.

The reporter, a woman, had to flee the country.

And so, the organisers decided, in the best interest of Nigeria and the contestants, to shift the pageant to London.

In London, the contestants rehearsed for the pageant on December 7.

“On the night of the pageant I had fun, fun and more fun. I was away for three months and I just wanted to get it over with”, Odessa said.

Miss Turkey took away the crown. Odessa failed to place in the top 20.

“I didn’t feel anyway. I felt normal. I was happy that she (Turkey) won, because she was somebody very close to me,” Odessa said.

Back in Guyana, Odessa said she is relaxing and will strive to pursue her platform of poverty alleviation.

She said she will also continue working with the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association (GRPA).

Odessa also plans to complete her studies in law at the University of Guyana.