11 Aug 2026

Miss World Botswana, Ruth Thomas is in Vietnam for the first time in her life  and, for the first time, she had set foot outside Africa.

She is one of more than a hundred delegates streaming into the country this week for the 73rd Miss World Festival, an anniversary edition of the pageant that will culminate in the grand finale in Ho Chi Minh City on September 5.

Somewhere in that wave of arrivals, gowns packed in garment bags, sashes still folded and jet lag setting in, was a girl from Masunga who, six months ago, was not sure she would ever leave the continent at all. She had admitted as much before leaving. The journey itself frightened her more than the competition.

“I’m very nervous about the travelling itself. I’ve never had the privilege to travel as much in my life… that alone is such a big deal, and it’s all scary at the same time.”

But she also promised herself that there was something waiting for her on the other side of that fear: a version of herself she had not yet met.

Now, she is there. And the story of how she prepared for this moment says almost as much about her as the moment itself.

Given the freedom to choose a talent for the world stage, the girl who can actually sing chose to dance instead , despite admitting that she was not very good at it initially.

“I have two left feet for the death of me, okay?”

Singing would have been the safer and more obvious choice. But she could not shake a nagging question: if she sang, who exactly would be left out?

“If I sing, will every African that wouldn’t make it to the talent finale feel represented?”

She did not like her own answer. So she abandoned the plan and spent months learning traditional dance instead, something clumsier, harder-won and, ultimately, designed to carry more people than her own talent alone could.

The preparation did not stop at choreography.

Swimming laps helped build the stamina she will need for the competition’s physical rounds. Then, almost quietly, came a complete rethink of what she eats.

“I believe that you’re what you eat.”

For Thomas, however, the statement is about more than nutrition. It is also about what she allows into her mind, the people she surrounds herself with and what she permits to occupy mental space as she prepares for an experience of this magnitude.

None of that discipline , the dance steps, the swimming, the changed diet, the faith and the fear was visible when she stepped off the flight when she arrived in Vietnam .

What people saw was a young woman from Botswana, standing on Vietnamese soil for the first time, with one leg of a much longer journey behind her and the biggest one still ahead.

She has until September 5 to turn six months of preparation into three unrepeatable minutes on a stage in Ho Chi Minh City.

If the last few months are anything to go by, she is not planning to waste a second of them. ENDS