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Deep in the Amazon jungle, eight women "castaways" row a small wooden boat along a crocodile-infested river to a campsite that will be their home for the next 39 days.

Nearby is another campsite, for eight men "castaways." The women -- the Jaburu Tribe -- will compete against the men -- the Tambaqui Tribe -- and ultimately against each other for $1 million.

This is "Survivor: The Amazon." Millions were expected to tune in to Thursday's 90-minute premiere of the sixth exotic location of the popular CBS television reality show.

Locally, all eyes were focused on JoAnna Ward, a deeply religious 31-year-old guidance counselor from Orangeburg who, family members say, has been blessed with strength and intelligence as well as beauty.

While the men -- led by a construction engineer -- build a serviceable, if primitive, shelter of palm fronds and wooden poles tied together with vines, the women spend many hours trying to get a bonfire going.

With no time to build shelter, the women spend the first night lying on the ground, trying to sleep despite the spiders and other creepy crawlies in this "bug-infested, fly-infested place," as one woman gripes.

The next day, while the men wield their machetes to improve their living quarters, the women wash their clothes, fight the bugs and gossip about the revelation that one of their number is almost totally deaf.

Almost unnoticed by her teammates, Ward isn't sitting around talking with or about the other contestants or fretting about the lack of creature comforts in the jungle.

The former South Carolina State University standout basketball player is getting out the fishing hooks, fastening them on crude poles and going out in the boat.

She comes back smiling and singing joyfully: "Alleluia, O glory, Alleluia, amen!"

And she's carrying a fish!

Sitting around the fire, eating morsels of Ward's catch -- the women's first food that is not part of the provided rations -- the others slowly come to realize that there's a special person in their midst.

"JoAnna got me real motivated today," says one. "She's got a spirit. ... She's the one saying, 'Let's go for it!'"

That spirit evidences itself again when the two teams are pitted against each other in their first competition of physical agility and mental acumen.

The men jump to a substantial early lead. But at a pivotal moment, Ward yells words of encouragement: "Move! Move! Move!" Inspired, the women lunge ahead as a team to win the competition.

But that was just round one. Who will ultimately "outwit, outplay and outlast" the rest? If history is any indication, television viewers will be glued to their sets each Thursday for the next six weeks to find out.

T&D Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5552.

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