Once again, let me remind readers: we can only comment on what we see revealed in the program - apart from family and friends, no viewers have any idea what any of the contestants are like within their normal life.
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The Elsie we saw in the show was hardly the woman I interviewed. We saw her pouting, sneering, finger-wagging, complaining, scolding, and hardly doing anything useful. But she felt un-respected and put-down, and was reacting to the situation as she saw it.
And the woman I spoke with was charming, cheerful and tactful. I remarked at the start that she had appeared to have a short-fuse temper - how had she handled the silly questions which are inevitable when being interviewed? She reported that she has been marvellously calm and unruffled.
Healed and sealed
I asked about the medical problems which lead to her eviction. The program makers have the assistance of a top-notch Swedish medical and nursing team, available at all times, but particularly standing by during challenges. She received more attention than we were able to be shown during the program, and apparently stayed behind in Malaysia a little longer, to enable her to heal fully.
Though we saw no signs of concern from the other contestants, apparently Irshaad and Amanda were particularly concerned. The injury must have been really painful, but fortunately was not too serious. It was especially hot and humid at the time of the incident, conditions which don't favour quick wound-healing. But fortunately, though there are still some visible scars, she said she has healed up well.
Not only is a lot of care taken to ensure that challenges are as safe as possible (and all apparatus is tested carefully by the crew before the contestants arrive), but they even have a guy whose job description would make him really handy in government departments - he's a special cheat official, who goes through the games looking for ways to cheat, so these can be eliminated.
How the injury happened
I asked Elsie for more information about how she became injured, and about the extent of her injuries. It was hard to see how it happened, because owing to the scale of the challenge and the apparatus, the cameras were mainly set up for long-distance, wide-angle shots, rather than close-ups, which were not expected to be so interesting.
The opposite team was overwhelmingly strong, so Elsie's group spent the game stumbling and being driven backwards. She found herself having difficulty moving backwards and it was hard to escape. She decided to try to hold onto the beam to steady herself and to duck under it, so as to escape on the other side of it.
But somehow she had drifted towards the side of the group, and her fingers got caught between the oncoming heavy beam and the wooden platform over which it moved. She couldn't get her finger out, and stumbling back against the wooden ring within which the beam was moving, and scraped her arm and back.
Fortunately Mark spotted what was happening and intervened because as the other team was concentrating on winning, and near their target, they weren't ready to rapidly stop the moving beam.
It would have been wise for the program to have shown something of the extent of her injuries, even if squeamish viewers might have found that unpleasant, as this would have avoided the impression otherwise given, that she might have been a drama queen, over-reacting to the situation. It must have been very painful, as well as shocking.
She understood why she was then voted out, and commented that had anyone else been in the position she was in, she would have voted them out, too. Especially since her tribe was down in numbers and unable to sit anyone out in forthcoming contests. She said she would rather have been voted off normally though, for being herself.
Perceptions of her tribe mates
She said she never felt safe in her tribe, and thus felt at risk of being voted off anyway. She felt she was seen as lazy; although Hein and Dyke were zealous about doing all the work and not allowing others to share it.
Amanda, for instance, apparently wanted to learn how to make fire from Hein, and offered to do some of the stick-rubbing involved, but was never allowed to get involved. She's not at all the combative person we saw in the show. She said that's not her usual self, although she's fully capable of revisiting that state if she feels she's being put down and disregarded, again!
Also, she confirmed - as do all former contestants - that the heat, insect bites, hunger and other factors are far worse than even the most avid viewer imagines, and of course, this makes one irritable. She found she was becoming very forgetful, even of things someone had said to her only minutes before.
She was working in a hotel when she entered the show, and for about a month after returning, but has since moved on to more interesting activities. She is now working on a low-cost housing project for Nigeria, an aviation-training project similarly for Nigeria, and something to do with environmental waste. Hardly what one might have expected, but all are fields of activity she said she finds highly satisfying and constructive.
(Professor M. A. Simpson, aka CyberShrink, September 2007)
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