Spanish students Shirley Omondi and Olive Mumbo were the proud winners of a short story writing contest that marked the 400^th anniversary of the death of a renowned Spanish writer Sr Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

 

The pair, received invitations to participate in this contest through their lecturer Rocio Vicens, and albeit the short turnaround time to submit the articles, Shirley and Olive emerged winners.

 

Shirley; It was a bit challenging but I managed to complete it within a day then sent it to the organizers of the contest. On Friday the same week I received an email declaring me as the first place winner in A2 level.

Olive; My worry was the timing because I only had 48 hours to submit a well written piece of article, and I am not as brilliant a writer in Spanish as I am in English. All in all, I liked the challenge, therefore thought that it would be lovely to see how far my abilities extended.

 

The contest tasked writers to submit short stories each of about 800 – 1500 words in Spanish for either levels A 1, A 2 or B 1. The winners were going to receive a grammar book, a dictionary, private Spanish classes and the publications of their stories in the Spanish Embassy Bulletin.

 

Shirley; My story was based on Don Quixote in the 21st Century, I tried to rewrite the story based on modern times, how it would be if this story was written in the 21st Century.

Olive; The best way to explain the topic of the essay would be to use William Shakespeare as an example. Just as William Shakespeare is profoundly remembered for his brilliant works of literature and still celebrated so is Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, for those who understand the Spanish language. I won the B1 level of the competition.

 

The pair described learning about the language, stating that this foreign language allows them to enjoy a taste of the Spanish life, building a new attitude towards life in general.

 

Olive; In my case the foreign language creates a new sense of poise and maturity, open mindedness, confidence and most certainly through practicing it I believe that my sense of decision making skills have developed over time.

Shirley; According to me Spanish has not only  been a language class or a humanity elective but a journey of discovering new things about a culture I only heard about but had no experience in.

 

Currently, Olive (4th year Strathmore Law School student) and Shirley (3rd year Bachelor of Commerce student) are in their 4th and 3rd Spanish classes respectively.  

 

Both their articles have been published in the Bulletin of the Spanish Embassy. 

 

Congratulations ladies on your great win!