Not one to back down from challenges, 18-year-old part-Swiss and part-Filipino Marvin Kiefer actually lives to dare and to defy, whether on the islands of Palau, or in the concrete jungles of Manila.

“It was intense and fun! It was everything,” describes the 5’10 tall model of his Survivor Philippines experience. Marvin was recently voted off and is the first castaway to be a member of the jury of the much-followed GMA reality series.

Born in Switzerland and raised in Cagayan de Oro, Marvin always has a passion for adventure, learning, and experiencing new things. No wonder then that surviving on a remote island came pretty easy for this season’s youngest castaway.

“The surviving part wasn’t so hard. I’m used to those situations. A lot of the physical challenges were beyond what humans are capable of. Surviving challenges, I live for that everyday, that’s why I wanted to be there,” says Marvin, who also auditioned for the first season of Survivor Philippines but was turned down because he was only 17 then.

But he is not all that tough. Marvin admits there were times that he almost quit the game.

“I could give up, be back home, in my bed, sleeping. If you don’t have a strong mind, you’re gonna crack. What I did was I often went off alone to the beach and looked far, thinking that I was just in a private resort,” he grins.

The hardest part, he says, was the social interaction. To prepare himself for Survivor Philippines, he read a lot of books on psychology and human relations.

“The conniving and the back stabbing were really hard because I’m not the type of person who’ll be able to cross somebody. But you do what you have to do, and just try not to hurt everybody,” he says.

FARMER’S SON

Before moving to Manila, Marvin spent most of his time at his father’s organic farm in Cagayan de Oro.

“I helped out in the farm as much as I could. Most of the food we eat we get from the farm. We make our own peanut butter, pesto, bread, jam, basically everything. I can make bread from scratch, bread is easy,” he proudly says.

He comes from a family that loves traveling, even calling globetrotting a family passion. His dad, a chemist by profession, did backpacking for 15 years, while his mom, who hails from Leyte, is described by Marvin as “pretty much wild herself.”

“Me and my three other brothers act more like friends than brothers. We always play in the mud or in the river, drifting, and then we discovered whitewater rafting. But we do the Pinoy-style rafting, not the big raft, we use a salbabida. I started drifting when I was seven. My mom was fine with it because she herself did those kinds of things when she was younger,” he relates.

A-STUDENT

In school, Marvin was an honor student and always belonged to the A section. “I’m very good in Math and Science. But if you asked me to draw, I can’t draw. I can draw a stick man but I can’t draw a stick man sitting down,” he laughs.

Growing up, Marvin found the province a perfect playground for his sporty and adventurous character, except for a few kids who bullied him.

“All my life I’ve been discriminated being half-white. I got into a lot of fights because of that. Eventually I learned to say ‘whatever.’ It’s hard because we’re not really accepted as Filipinos, although I think a lot like a Filipino more than other Filipinos. A lot of Filipinos try to be American. I think the people who discriminate are just ignorant.”

After graduating from high school at the Ateneo de Cagayan, he went backpacking for a month, and when he came back, he made the decision to pursue modeling like his older brother Raphael.

“My childhood dream was always to become a pilot. But it’s expensive, so I scratched off that idea. Then I didn’t know where to go and what to do anymore. I went to Manila and did modeling. I’d rather just earn money instead of making my parents spend money for me, for another four years. I want to go back to school one day, but if ever I’m going back, I don’t want to take an ordinary course. I want something worthwhile and challenging,” he says.

READY, SET, JUMP!

It seems that Marvin has too much energy and time in his hands.

He has learned every sport that he could – from volleyball, football, cycling and swimming, and made hobbies out of breakdancing, skateboarding, wall climbing and parkour, this despite having a knee injury when he fell down from a tree in high school.

“I started break dancing in Grade Five. I saw a couple of people doing it and said I could do that too. I had a dance crew and we had battles in clubs and on streets. I did parkour when I moved here in Manila – around the house, my neighbors’ walls, in abandoned warehouses,” he enthuses.

When Marvin is not literally jumping around, he reads books (his favorite author is Norwegian intellectual and author Jostein Gaarder) or listens to Bob Marley, The Beatles, and Kings of Leon. “I think I read more books than most people my age read. I have a collection. I read a lot of Taoist books and business books,” he adds.

He also boasts of a huge CD collection, about 3,000 of both original and burned CDs -- and counting.
“We have a music library back in Cagayan de Oro. It’s not just 3,000 of whatever CDs, it ranges from world music to rock, to the 70’s, to punk, blues, jazz, everything! We try to follow the underground scene. We also have a lot of local.”

HE’S A SURVIVOR

Marvin and his brother Raphael were also not spared by typhoon Ondoy. Their house in Cainta was submerged in flood water. Luckily for Marvin, he was at a friend’s house that Saturday morning, but his brother had to evacuate and stay on the second floor of a neighbor’s house.

“I felt bad because I couldn’t help. I couldn’t believe that it happened. My clothes, shoes, appliances, and papers mostly were ruined,” he relates.

An environmentalist and a vegetarian since he was 14 years old, Marvin believes that with the recent disasters, young people should be aware and concerned with environmental issues at an early age.

“Just by being a vegetarian, you’re already an environmentalist because, in terms of cow grazing, you don’t contribute to the amount of land used to feed one meat eater,” he explains.

After surviving major challenges, life goes on for Marvin. The once shy guy has gained more confidence, and is definitely loving his new self.

“When I started modeling, I was really conscious, but now, I feel more relaxed because I have nothing to hide anymore. Before, I contained my athletic and adventurous side. With Survivor, I was able to show everyone my true self. I am more confident than before because I am not hiding anymore.
This is the real Marvin Kiefer,” he ends.