AUCTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS AT THE MISS WORLD CHARITY GALA

Another special evening in Puerto Rico was spent at the Miss World Charity Dinner and Ball, which auctioned beautiful pieces donated by each Miss World contestant to raise much needed funds for various charities in Puerto Rico.

My donation was a local painting by renowned Trinidad artist Peter Sheppard, depicting an old cocoa house on what used to be a plantation in the lush Santa Cruz valley of Trinidad. These houses were used to accommodate cocoa beans extracted from cocoa pods which were cultivated from trees on the estate. The beans would be placed on trays in the roof which would then slide back to expose the beans to sunlight to for drying.

I was thrilled to receive this beautiful local piece of art from artist Peter Sheppard, who is captured here presenting it to me and telling me the story of cocoa production in Trinidad.

The cocoa estate is an enduring part of our colonial history, dating all the way back to Spanish rule, and I was grateful and honoured to share this piece of our rich heritage with the world, and to donate it for good causes.