Ropa: My story

Ropa: My story

• Makho wins Miss Zimbabwe USA 2006

• Ropa wins Miss Global beauty pageant

• Hunt on for Miss Zimbabwe UK finalists 2006

• Zim represented at Miss Bikini 2005

• Zimbabwe snubs Miss Tourism World

• Zimbabwe teachers told to dress up!

• Miss Zim USA in Miss Africa pageant

• So whose dress ladies?

• Miss Zimbabwe UK in pictures

• Makosi steals show at Miss Zim UK

By Showbiz Reporter

MISS Global International Beauty Pageant winner Ropafadzai Garuse attributes her stunning success to an unlikely source -- her family's former maid back in Zimbabwe.

Aged just five, Ropa remembers how their former maid would take her to every fashion and modeling function in the town of Chegutu, just outside Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.

In an exclusive interview with New Zimbabwe.com, Ropa reveals: "She took me to almost every talent and fashion show and in a way, that really laid the foundation to my modeling ambitions."

A few years later, Ropa took part in the Miss Chegutu (Junior) pageant and won.

"That felt good, but my interest in modeling died down a bit because I really never thought I could make it as a model," he said.

However, by chance, when Ropa enrolled at Hartzell High School in 1999, she and her new friends decided to hold an impromptu modeling competition -- each girl wrapped in bed sheets!

"I won that competition and I remember all the girls saying to me 'you are going to be Miss Zimbabwe' and I was like 'yeah right'. It sounded just crazy to entertain hopes of winning Miss Zimbabwe when I had just won a modeling contest dressed in bed sheets."

Later that year, an event took place at the school that would forever alter her ambition and steel her resolve.

It is culture in every Zimbabwean boarding school that Form 1 students do not take part in competitions where Form 4 students are involved. Plainly, it is taboo for a Form 1 student to embarrass a senior in any form.

Near-riot scenes broke out when Ropa did the unthinkable by submitting her name for the Miss Hartzell High School modeling contest. It got worse when she won the contest to the rising annoyance of her seniors.

"It was pure mayhem. The Form 4's immediately banned all Form 1's from visiting their dormitories. It felt like I had just did something terrible, all Form 1's were going to pay for my sins," she remembered.

In 2000, Ropa took a deliberate decision not to participate but instead went to the Miss Lucky 7 pageant held in Mashonaland West and came second.

However, in 2001, Ropa once again took part in the Miss Hartzell High School pageant. The competition's organisers made sure she would not win by ditching external judges and replacing them with fellow students -- some of them her most vocal opponents.

She said: "At that point, whether I won or lost, tempers were running high. I had become something of a cause celebre. When I was announced as the first princess, sparks flew around the school. My issue had become increasingly divisive.

"That year, while walking around at the Trade Fair in Bulawayo, I was approached by people from the Windermere Hotel and asked to take part in the Miss Trade Fair Windermere Hotel 2001.

"I was 15 then but I lied that I was 16 in order to qualify. I came fourth."

In her last year at Hartzell in 2002, Ropa once again won the Miss Hartzell title, but that would be the last competition she took part in in Zimbabwe as she soon joined her family in England.

"When I got here, modeling was the last thing on my mind. Like most girls just arrived from Zimbabwe, I looked like hell and I set about grooming myself," said Ropa.

Her first modeling contest in the UK came in 2004 when she took part in the Miss Africa and Caribbean in the north of England. She won the contest and Miss Zimbabwe UK 2005 winner, Primrose Mutsigiri, was her first princess.

Ropa said: "We became tight with Primrose from that day. In 2005, I took part in Miss Malaika UK but didn't win. We then took part in the Miss Zimbabwe UK 2005 contest with Primrose and she won, while I got into the top five."

By some stroke of luck, events launched Ropa's international modeling career in 2005 when Primrose and her two runners-up failed to answer an invitation to participate in the Miss Bikini World and Model of the Universe pageants in Turkey.

"When I was asked if I could go, I couldn't believe how lucky I was. I did well there but only won a category award for best African," she said.

By now, Ropa's career was on a roll and she was getting invitations from all around. She even got an invitation to take a part in an American budget movie which she is still keen to do.

But her biggest break would come at the Miss Caribbean and Commonwealth pageant in Hammersmith late last year. Although Ropa came third, she was spotted by a member of the audience who has connections with the organisers of Miss Global International.

She revealed: "One of the prizes I won for coming third in the Miss Caribbean and Commonwealth pageant was a return ticket to Holland, so this lady asked if I could get the organisers to trade that for a ticket to Jamaica. Not only did they agree to give me a ticket to Jamaica, they also kept the option to go to Holland later in the year open."

By her own admission, nothing had prepared her for what she witnessed in Jamaica.

Said Ropa: "I came across a bunch of real professionals. Around the dinner table, some of the girls were talking about their experiences in major international competitions including Miss Universe and so on.

"I just thought I couldn't be better than them. I was in awe. I couldn't participate actively in the conversations because I was really an outsider. At that moment, I just thought I was up against it.

"But when the pageant opened with a talent show where we were asked to sing, I made it into the top eight. I thought well, it's now or never. Suddenly I was confident and I sent a text to friends telling them how well it had gone."

After so many years of hurt and low-key modeling contests in which she had participated, Ropa's big moment came when the judges unanimously voted her winner. The first runner-up prize went to Jamaica's Amoy Moulton with Dominica's Gizelle Valmond taking the second runner-up spot. Miss United Kingdom, Leeandra Anderson and Miss Puerto Rico Massiel Peralta made up the top five.

Ropa said: "Instead of jumping up and down in celebration, I suddenly felt sick. My legs became weak and I thought I had a cramp. I had to be assisted by some of the girls to sit down. It was all rather too much.

"For the rest of the night, I kept thinking I was dreaming. Some of the girls were really beautiful and charming, I just thought there was no way I could do better than them. It was an unbelievable experience."

Ropa's rise to success has claimed many casualties along the way -- including her ex-boyfriend who tried vainly to stop her from modeling

"Whenever I took part in a competition and lost, he would be nagging me and saying 'told you so, quit it'. It came to a point where I just said I don't need this anymore and I told him to walk.

"I am at a stage of my modeling career where some things don't make sense and I have become suspicious of people's intentions around me. I don't know who to trust anymore, and it hurts because its just a natural reaction when you achieve something.

"I haven't told anyone at work that I won Miss Global and I want to keep it that way for as long as it can last. I want to keep in touch with my normal life, waking up daily at 6am and getting to work at 7am ready to start.

"I have no intention of taking part in smaller contests now, because that would be taking 10 steps backwards. I have an idea to help other girls trying to break into modeling and plans are afoot for me to do some cat-walking in Milan (Italy) during fashion shows.

"If Miss Global was my last competition, it certainly wasn't my last walk on the ramp."
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