MGI Events

 

MGI 2020 greenllights pre-pageant activities

By Earl D.C. Bracamonte

The Miss Grand International organization has formally opened the 2020 competition on March 15 with a portrait session for national titlists who already completed the 14-day quarantine and passed the swab tests.

The first batch of candidates were photographed in a hawker stall set-up, complete with street food and fruit stands. As the earliest candidate to arrive in Bangkok, Miss Grand Philippines Samantha Bernardo was among those who participated in the photo shoot.

Garbed in a gem-encrusted, rib-baring dress with a thigh-high slit, Sam rocked the photo and video shoot with confidence and panache. After the shoot, the girls were then whisked off to their first dance rehearsal.

Day 2 saw the remaining contestants, now out of quarantine, doing their photo session while the first batch of twenty candidates went to the Blue Elephant Cooking School to learn a few things about Thai cuisine. Since Day 2 was Salad Day Challenge, the twenty girls had to prepare their version of Som Tam, or green papaya salad, after being taught how to.

The first three to finish were the Philippines, Vietnam, and Myanmar. Sam's version was loaded with garlic, Miss Vietnam's was kinda sweetish, while Miss Myanmar's was spicy. Aside from the three, the other girls who joined in the cookfest were Italy, Paraguay, Peru, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Cambodia, Panama, Thailand, Indonesia, USA, Venezuela, Colombia, China, Puerto Rico, Kenya, Mauritius, and Germany.

While aboard the shuttle bus on their way back to rehearsals, the girls sang a birthday song to Miss Grand Ecuador, Sonia Luna, to celebrate her natal anniversary and wished her well in her MGI journey.

The day ended with Sam, together with Misses Mexico, Myanmar, Ecuador, and Indonesia having dinner with MGI president Nawat Itsaragrisil, together with Miss Grand Int'l 2019 Valentina Figuera of Venezuela, as incentive for being in the leaderboard of the first online challenge - How to Know Me in 1-Minute.

The next event saw the candidates doing a courtesy visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand, as well as to the Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.