Survivors in Africa
From You Magazine
By Jane Vorster
ARE my eyes playing tricks on me? When I look in my rear-view mirror I see an Amazon queen sitting in the back seat of my car. But wait, it gets weirder . . . there’s an African prince next to me.
Oh dear, if I’d known I’d be ferrying around royalty in my rusty little Volksie I’d have made a point of getting it valeted. Luckily Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca seem oblivious to their humble mode of transport. As winners of Survivor Africa and Survivor Amazon they’re used to roughing it and anyway, as it turns out, a trip in my rustmobile is pure driving pleasure compared with their previous experience on South Africa’s roads.
Ethan chuckles as he recounts how they caught a minibus taxi the previous day. ‘‘It was our first day in Cape Town and I wanted to treat Jenna to a true African experience,’’ he says with a naughty chuckle.
Until now Jenna has been sitting quietly in the back seat with the window opened wide and a gentle breeze tousling her long hair but talk of her taxi ordeal prompts her to lean forward and take up the story.
‘‘This taxi drove up and my first thought was, ‘I can’t get in that’. This guy was yelling and there were about six people sitting on each seat and the radio was playing so loud it made the whole taxi vibrate. It was a quite an experience,’’ she says rolling her eyes dramatically.
Clearly she’s having great fun recounting this tale. This is why they’ve come to South Africa – to have a genuine experience of the place and meet ordinary people rather than just hang out with other visiting foreigners in the luxury of an air-conditioned tour bus.
It’s nice to see them so upbeat. The last time we saw them, competing in Survivor All Stars, they looked distinctly miserable as their former non-millionaire tribemates ganged up against them. But all that’s water under the bridge now as they pepper me with questions about what it’s like at the top of Table Mountain.
They want to see as much of Cape Town as possible but first it’s time for lunch in Camps Bay where they’ve promised to spill all their Survivor secrets.
WE’VE hardly sat down when they’re approached by fans who ask if they’d be willing to pose for a picture with them. They’re happy to oblige. It’s hardly surprising they get lots of attention wherever they go. As winners of two of the most memorable seasons of Survivor each is interesting in their own right but their romantic alliance makes them even more fascinating.
The couple make a dynamite combo – Ethan (32) with his mop of curly hair and puppy-dog brown eyes and Jenna (24) with her dazzling smile and model good looks.
A few years ago he was a professional soccer player who played for teams in the US and Zimbabwe and she was a swimwear model who posed for glossy men’s magazines. But Survivor turned their lives upside down, putting them on the fast-track to fame. These days Jenna hosts an Internet talk show, Survivor Live, where she offers commentary on the reality TV series and runs her own modelling company.
She hasn’t dipped into much of her Survivor fortune. When she won the contest at the age of 21 the temptation must have been great to blow her winnings but she wisely resisted and invested most of it. The only luxury she permitted herself was a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes.
Ethan splashed out on cars for his two brothers, invested some money and used the rest to co-found Grassroot Soccer, an organisation that trains soccer heroes in Africa to go out and warn children about the dangers of Aids.
‘‘As anyone who’s ever spent time in Africa will know soccer stars are regarded as gods – they are the true celebs,’’ Ethan explains.
He experienced this first-hand when he played soccer for the Bulawayo Highlanders in Zimbabwe.
‘‘In America when I played first-division matches we drew a crowd of 1 000 spectators at most but in Zimbabwe it was a different story – there you’d get a crowd of about 40 000 for each match.’’
It was during this time he became aware of how Aids is decimating the African population but felt powerless to do anything about it.
He was reminded of the huge proportions of the crisis again a few years later when competing in Survivor Africa in Kenya and when he walked away with the million dollars he resolved to do something to help.
The programme has been a roaring success and he predicts by next year they’d have reached over a million children.
His involvement in it is part of the reason he and Jenna are in South Africa at the moment.
‘‘In 2010 the entire world will be looking at South Africa when it hosts the soccer World Cup so we’re here laying the ground work, trying to organise sponsorship and find ways we can spread our Aids message.’’
But hopefully their stay here won’t be all work and no play. They’re also planning to go surfing in Jeffrey’s Bay and if time allows venture off on a safari.
They’ll be back in South Africa again in April, bringing Survivor Palau finalist Ian Rosenberger with them. The plan is that he and Ethan will run Cape Town’s gruelling Two Oceans marathon to raise funds for Grassroot Soccer.
‘‘He’s coming along to push me up the hills and Jenna will probably be trailing behind us in a car eating ice cream,’’ Ethan jokes.
YOU don’t have to spend a long time with the couple to notice they share a very special chemistry. They’re constantly laughing and bantering with each other. Why didn’t we get to see any of this when they were competing on Survivor All Stars, the show that saw the most memorable castaways from previous seasons of Survivor competing against each other in Panama?
‘‘At that stage we’d only been dating for a few months,’’ Ethan explains.
But it was torture not being able to talk to each other. The two were on different tribes so poor Ethan was worried sick when Jenna abruptly announced she was quitting the game because she was worried about her mom, Carla, who was at home dying of breast cancer.
‘‘It was the strangest thing,’’ Jenna recalls. ‘‘Nobody told me anything but a day before I decided to quit I felt weird. It wasn’t just homesickness – something was wrong. I felt I didn’t have any other choice but to leave the game.’’
It turned out to be the best decision because eight days after she returned home her mom died.
She felt even better about her choice when she saw the outcome of the game.
‘‘I’ve never seen such bitter, angry people. Even at the finale they were still fighting. Everybody was friends before the show but playing Survivor made everything change.’’
Luckily the game didn’t have a negative impact on her relationship with Ethan – if anything it brought them closer.
After dating for almost three years they recently moved in together.
Their new home is a sparsely furnished apartment in New York which they just moved into five days before their trip to South Africa.
So any chance of another Rob and Amber-style reality TV wedding anytime soon?
Jenna’s eyes light up when she hears the question. ‘‘Oh, this one I’d love to hear the answer to,’’ she quips, gazing expectantly at Ethan.
‘‘Well, right now we’re having the time of our lives travelling and seeing the world. There’s no hurry to get married,’’ he says shyly.
Spoken like a true diplomat. No wonder his Survivor Africa tribemates decided to give him the million.