A few months ago, a friend of my sister bid on the chance to have dinner with Yau-Man, from Survivor: Fiji and Sonja, from the first season at a charity auction. The friend arrived home and announced that if she won, she was taking Karen (my sister has always been the type of person to attract that type of extravagant gesture). Lo and behold, she did win, and they headed down to San Francisco to attend the dinner last weekend.

The charity in question is The Wellness Community, a support organization for cancer patients and survivors. Sonja, who survived breast cancer before appearing on Survivor asked Yau-Man to contribute his time. (Most of the past Survivor contestants know each other.) Yau-Man does not do any product endorsements or make any paid appearances, so this was truly a rare opportunity to get to spend time with him.

Since it was very generous of him to donate his time in this way, I don't think it would be fair or classy to reveal any of the really good dirt he told them about the new season or some of the more confidential things about past seasons/Survivors. In fact, in order to avoid temptation, I asked my sister not to tell me any of that stuff until after this piece is posted. One teaser, though; apparently there are two kind of surprising hook-ups among Micronesia's "fan favorites." I guess that makes sense, considering that the last all-star season spawned Romber.

The dinner itself was pizza at another member of The Wellness Community's home. Yau-Man and Sonja both spent lots of time with the other dinner guests; they were there late into the evening answering questions, taking photos, and (my favorite) having a sing-along as Sonja played her famous ukulele.

The most interesting thing they discussed, I think, was what happens to the Survivors after they are eliminated. They are met immediately by a team offering psychological counseling and, of course, food. Yau-Man declined the counseling; he was okay, he just wanted to eat, and polished off a ham sandwich and two bananas before even getting to the crew's camp. I suppose it would be a pretty intense experience; I can see how some contestants would need some counseling.

The other interesting thing is that Yau -Man did not apply to be on Survivor, he was recruited. They were looking for older people, and for minorities, and they found him through his involvement with the USA Table Tennis Association. Once they found out he'd grown up in Borneo, they really wanted him and called him twice in the same day.

The main thing my sister took away from the experience was that Yau-Man and Sonja were both such genuinely nice people. They just sound like such normal, pleasant folks, and considering the toll that reality television stardom can take on some people, that's no small feat.

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Amy Kane spends as much quality time with her television as possible, when she's not busy at her day job as a cube dweller.

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