The ballroom went silent for one minute. Joan Joy stood on stage, waiting. After spending more than Ksh150,000 ($1,158) on her first major competition and another small fortune to get to Thailand, the 25-year-old Kenyan model was anxious.
Then they called her name. Miss Independent Africa, from Kenya, and she came alive.
“I got weak when they said Kenya,” she recalls. “My friend was like, 'Oh my God, it’s you!' For a moment I was confused. I didn’t even know which side to go on the stage.”
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