Remembering Hazel Warren: the day she came home

In less than two weeks from now, On December 6, 2009, the curtain closes for this year's Big Brother Africa Revolution. Our Mzamose Chibambo, Peace be Upon Her, is still in the House and is poised to reach the final. Before she comes, let us take a dive back to last year, when our representative Hazel Warren was cheated to the US$100, 000 prize money by a cheating Big Brother and his auditors- wherever they schooled- and get a re-feeling of what it was like before her arrival and press briefing.

Malawi’s representative to the Big Brother Africa III reality show, Hazel Warren returned to the country on Wednesday after an impressive performance for the whole 91 day period that the show run. Although she missed the ultimate prize money, Hazel returned home a heroine. On Wednesday she had a press conference in Lilongwe and Zachimalawi reviews Warren's press conference for you. Excerpts:

How has the reception you have received back home made you feel?

Coming home and seeing all those people at the airport and even on the streets has been a very humbling experience for me. Never in my life did I think that this could happen, it just makes me feel so humbled but at the same time it makes me feel so loved and very accepted by my countrymen.

How did you handle being under the watchful eye of the camera all the time?

Being in the House 24/7 all the time and under the eye of the camera is indeed challenging in the beginning especially coming from a background where you never had cameras and there you are with cameras and wearing microphones all the time. Sometimes you forget that there are cameras and microphones around. Sometimes you get up and you go into the bathroom to brush your teeth and you forget your microphone in the bedroom and you immediately hear Big Brother saying “make sure that you wear your microphone properly”. It’s something that I personally got used to slowly and adjusted. I’m adjusting to living without cameras and microphones now.

What motivated you to join BBA III?

I won’t lie. I wanted the money.

What do you think made you survive in the House for the whole 91 days?

I think my calm nature and I am also tolerant to other people’s views. I realised that my housemates and I were from different parts of the continent with different values and different beliefs. I couldn’t be there and judge everybody according to how I saw the situation and that’s why I think I survived.

How can you describe your relationship with Thami in the House?

I am very happy that Thami and I had a very good friendship but obviously more to that there was a love interest. Personally I felt that making a decision of such nature in the House for myself would not be right because such a decision would be circumstantial in the sense that we were enclosed. And such feelings would probably be there because of the circumstance.

What do you celebrate most in the house and what are your regrets?

I have no regrets being in the House. What I celebrate most is that it gave me an opportunity to explore my abilities. Obviously when we are living out here where we are free we take things for granted and we put ourselves in a box and we don’t think outside the box. But being in there you are put on the spot to perform 100 percent all the time and you will attest that when we were given tasks each of the housemates wagered 100 percent. It has also taught me that there was a lot each one of us can do. Out here we limit ourselves, we can pay some one to do something for us instead of doing it ourselves.

What do you think gave Ricco the upper hand over you?

My opinion is that Ricco is a young guy and he appeals to the younger females who happen also to be most of the voters. As such that gave him an advantage and another thing also was that we might have the same fan base but I would say his fans were more aggressive in their voting in the sense that I can give an example of one fan who probably cast 50 votes for Ricco while I have a fan, same fan base, but probably this one fan of mine cast 20 or 30 votes so you can see the difference there.

Was there any other way which you think the organisers of the show could have broken the tie between you and Ricco?

I will say yes there was another way. This other way is the one that we all knew from the very beginning, from the word go. This new way that was taken was very surprising, one that none of the housemates had ever heard of. The one that we knew that in an eventuality of a tie between the housemates was that the mechanism that would be used would be spinning of a wheel. Obviously to everybody’s surprise that mechanism was never used and we have no idea why and how the winner was selected and I will also quote from the press conference that we did earlier on Monday in South Africa with other journalists at Multichoice offices where there was a similar question on how the eventual winner was determined after the deadlock. The answer that was given was not very impressive to me because they said all the statistics are not yet out but in a couple of days we will be able to have all of the statistics and publish everything and then everything will be known to the world, but this immediately raises the question that if you don’t have the statistics how do you announce the winner, how does that go.

And so what do you think should be done as regards this issue of the tie?

It would be best that whatever action is taken should be taken collectively and not individually because when you make people stand together and make noise it is heard more than if I did it alone. I was there and I did ask how the scenario came about and the answer that I got was not satisfactory and again I could be pushed over left, right and centre but if it is collective it would make so much of a difference.

Was the constant cooking in the House part of your strategy?

I never went into the House with any strategy at all. The reason being that I felt having a strategy would limit you in the sense that you will only be focusing on that and you won’t have an idea who your opponents are. So you create a strategy but you don’t know who you are playing against, you don’t know their strengths and I said that when I get to the House this is what I will do – I will get to know the housemates, know their strengths and weaknesses and then move on from there and not really go into the House with a strategy. As for the cooking a lot of people who know me know that cooking is a passion. It’s not something that developed yesterday, its something that developed way back when I was very young. I did at some point have a business of some catering sort so that wasn’t part of a strategy at all. If you have a passion for something you will do it no matter where you are.

How did it feel to be among people of different nationalities and cultures?

I thought that was learning experience and I would learn more from the people that were in there. I’ve never been to all the countries there is only been South Africa , Zimbabwe and Zambia so it was a learning experience that I was in that House. We exchanged a lot of knowledge. It was a learning experience and also a journey of self discovery.

We don’t here much about your father in all this, can you tell us something about him?

I lost my dad last year in September and it gets me really emotional to talk about him. I can share that on Saturday I cried tonnes (maybe most of you didn’t know) in my bed because I thought of my father and how at that point it could have been so good and nice for him to be around to share my joy but he wasn’t. We deal with grief in different ways and I guess that’s how I deal with it.


What now after Big Brother, we understand you have interests in modelling and acting?

Being on the show exposes you a lot and there are a lot of opportunities that come along with it and those would be some of the things that I would do (modelling and acting).. And I did mention that I would like to do promotions of hair products so I will see and try if there will be anything of that nature on my way. And of those that come I would sift and sift through to see which ones would be best suitable for me.

Some people complained that you were not quite the entertainer in the show because the show is all about entertainment. How do you look at this?

What is entertainment to me might not be entertainment to some one else. But me being in the house the whole 91 days and coming up to a tie, and surviving four nominations without being head of house and without being saved I think that says a lot. If I were boring I would never had made it to the second nomination, maybe..

Is there any love in your life?

No there is no guy. My profile does say I am single.

Do you have any plans to invite any housemate to Malawi

Yes, when we were in the House the housemates were discussing the possibilities of inviting each other to one another’s countries and yes it would be nice to invite all the 11 other housemates to Malawi so that they would be able to spread the word of our beautiful country. It is a possibility and it is something that we discussed in the House that we would extend invitations to each other.

You have changed from little known Hazel to well known Hazel in a space of three months. How are you going to handle the fame?

I would like to take each day one step at a time. I think to me there is no formula as to how I will handle my fame. I think it will be best to take it one step at a time and also with a good support system, with the family that I have, they will be there to support me coz I think it will be challenging to be on your own.

How did you manage to stay in the House for 91 days without engaging in any sexual act, what is your secret? What message do you have for the girl child out there?

First of all my secret is the fear I have in the Lord. And again I knew why I went into the House and that was to go there and win the money. Other things were secondary to this. And to the African girl child out there I say know yourself and know your purpose in life. Set objectives in life and everything you do in life should be targeted towards achieving those objectives. But if you sway with the wind you will not achieve anything. Have a vision of what you want to achieve in life.

Zain has given you K1 million, what are you going to do with it?

I am very grateful for that. I really didn’t expect anything like it. I would still say like I said if I had won the K14 million that I would give part of the money to my mother. And then because I am home and I do have my advisors namely my mother and my relatives who would best advise me as to how and where to manoeuvre with the money. But also I would not forget my business Bride to Be coz I would need to boost it.