Post by Quanz on Nov 14, 2012 16:32:36 GMT -5
As a resourceful and worldly tribe, we the members of Mbochi decided to use as many elements of the Congo as possible to catch the attention of our saviours. The most important factor was to create the entire S.O.S design around the tribe camp, so our shelter would right in the middle. That serves the practical purpose of someone always being around the S.O.S. zone to signal to the skies when any potential rescuers happen to fly by. It also ensures, that should our saviours notice our distress signal and land, they would not have to search far for us, nor venture into the dangerous wilderness in search for us.
Our shelter where we sleep was moving to be located dead centre in the middle of the O. All of our S.O.S letters are made up of dry stumps and branches in the vicinity. The Congo is home to over 6000 species of plant life, so finding these in the humid, equatorial climate.
The two periods between the “O” in “S.O.S.” are made of piled rocks.
We then cut down four local palm trees – ala Bobby-Jon Drinkard - and laid them out diagonally around the O. Palm trees are not uncommon in the Congo. Various types of palms grow within the many different regions of the Congo, whether they be the coastal or mangrove regions, or the jungle or savannah regions. These palms include: The Oil Palm, Coconut Palm and Rafia Palm trees. They would be common materials one could construct an S.O.S. signal with.
As this is Survivor, we assume that before such a challenge we would be given a limited choice of tools to aid us in such a challenge – as is customary on the show. If not, it is not difficult to topple a skinnier palm with vines, ropes and seven strong tribe members.
The local Okoume Tree is also tall and skinny with high hanging leaves and could provide an alternative to palms depending on the region.
NOTE: We also considered using branches of the African Teac, but realized it is an endangered and protected tree. Such an action would be in direct violation of Survivor rules and so we opted not to go ahead with it.
The half circle surrounding the campsite is comprised of two parts. The first section comprises of leaves, grassy shrubs, twigs and vines, framed by the second section, comprising of rocks. Before we lay these down, we dug out the ring and muddied up the soil beneath to add a contrasting brown.
Finally, as a last ditch effort to get noticed, we have symmetrically placed seven circular sand pits where the tribe members of Mbochi will attempt to attract the attention by lying down frantically creating sand angels, in hopes that someone will notice our movements. Since we were limited to shades of greens, blues and browns, we stripped to our bathing suits and coated ourselves in brown mud. Notice how the sexy physique of our model/mascot Ryan Quanz frolicking shirtless in the sand, is enough to attract the attention of any pilot – even from 100 clicks away:
