Atino Lucky Bianka
On the night she was crowned Miss Tourism, Atino Lucky Bianka just couldn’t believe it. She had been so unbothered about winning that she had neither voted for herself nor asked her friends to vote for her.
She didn’t want to try too hard and then end up disappointing herself. She had found out in the regionals that votes don’t necessarily matter too much.
It takes a certain amount of PR shenanigans to whip up enough votes to put you ahead and she didn’t have any money for that. Even then, you may get all the votes and not get the crown, and she got that. She’s the reigning Miss Tourism now.
“You may get enough votes to become Miss Popularity and that is important in pushing you to the top three, but things that get you the crown are different. I see that in hindsight now. It had occurred to me in the regionals that what really mattered was my behaviour, my speech, my relationship with other people and how I well I presented myself,” Atino says.
Boot camp surprise
Atino had come to boot camp as second runner up from the north. The two girls ahead of her (the first runner-up and the queen) were technically better than her. And for that, she understood that she stood no chance. She just came for the final boot camp to have fun and learn whatever she could about these things and go back to school.
- When she arrived at the final boot camp at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) in Entebbe, three weeks to the night she would be crowned, there were these two Ankole girls who she instantly knew she would never beat.