Survivor: Myanmar

Shin Maw • Day 1

Shin Maw wanted to put their newly-won flint to work. It was Jonah kneeling over a newly-dug fire pit, with a ball of dry grass on the ground. Everybody else surrounded him. "We have twigs and firewood on standby, right?" he asked?

"Yeah, it's to your left," Emmanuel exclaimed.

Jonah nodded. He was holding the flint directly beside the grass, and holding the machete in the other hand.

Jonah (Shin Maw Tribe): I thought I'd offer to make fire for the tribe, just to see if I could actually do it. I've never really used flint and a machete before, but I've watched Survivor enough times that I think I know what to do.

Jonah started striking the flint with the machete. Sparks came out every time he struck the flint, but what he needed was for embers to attach themselves to the dry grass so that it would ignite.

"You've got this!" Alex exclaimed encouragingly.

After striking about twenty times, one of the embers finally caught on to the dry grass. "Ooh, you got something!" Shiloh said. Jonah quickly started blowing the tiny flame, in an attempt to grow it.

It went out.

"Damn it," John said. "Don't worry, try again."

Jonah (Shin Maw Tribe): Making fire is NOT as easy as they sometimes make it seem on the show. You have to strike it perfectly, at the perfect angle, at the perfect speed, perfect distance from the dry grass...

The same thing happened again, after about thirty more strikes. A few people looked excited, as Jonah blew once again on the tiny flame...

...and it went out again.

"Ugh," Jonah uttered. 

"You got this," Brianna said.

Jonah continued striking.

Jonah (Shin Maw Tribe/continued): ...I definitely have a lot more respect for people who come out here and they can't make fire, or they take a long time to make fire. It's actually really hard.

For a third time, the exact same thing happened. Jonah blew on the tiny little flame, a few people leaned in to get a closer look...

And finally, the flame started to grow. "Oh my god," Emmanuel exclaimed. "It's growing."

Jonah continued blowing on it until the flame grew enough to be more visible by the others, and then he started piling small twigs over it in a teepee shape. Then, it wasn't long until the flame attached to those twigs. "We've got a fire!" Lauren exclaimed.

The entire tribe cheered and applauded for Jonah, who grinned in appreciation. 

Brianna (Shin Maw Tribe): It took him a few tries, but Jonah got the fire for us, and now we have fire! It's only been a couple of hours, so to already have fire is super motivating for me. I think that as a tribe, we have a lot of unity, and that should help us going forward. I secretly hope the other tribe is this big dysfunctional mess, so that we can win lots of challenges and not have to worry about voting each other off.

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Later in the day, Kalyani and Alex were together collecting firewood to store for later on. "So, what do you do for work?" Kalyani asked Alex.

"I just work retail," Alex answered. "Nothing much."

"No, that's cool!" Kalyani exclaimed. "Where do you do retail?"

"I work cashier at an art store," Alex said. 

"What's it like there?" Kalyani asked.

"It's really fun, I love the people there," Alex exclaimed. "Plus, I love art,  so it's fun to work somewhere that I like."