Video Feature: The Hot Zone You Haven't Seen, Part II

Kevin Sites reflects on the lighter side of his travels.

From Africa to

In part two of this special Hot Zone video report, Kevin talks about the lighter side of his travels. Wondering what the food is like in Somalia? Read on.

TRANSCRIPT 

The road
I think what a lot of people don't realize is even though I report alone and I travel by myself, I have a mission control team back in Santa Monica: a producer, a senior producer, and a researcher. Basically, these people keep me on the road.

There have been situations where you come into a place, especially when you are embedded with the military — and, you know, you're sleeping on a cot, if you are lucky, if you aren't sleeping on the ground. You don't have any privacy. There's a hundred other people in there, they are snoring it cots right next to you. You've got to create just a little bit of space for yourself. It might be where you place your backpack.

I can be fairly scatterbrained. So I've got to put things in the same place over and over again. Not because it's compulsive, it's just because I won't remember.

I was flying from

"What I've really learned on the road is that when you need something the most, that's when the gear is going to screw you."— Kevin Sites

I have to carry a lot of gear everyday. And that's the thing that keeps me in shape. I actually am in shape at this point. You're basically hauling 60 pounds of camera equipment on your back in a big duffel expedition bag full of your own personal gear: food, and backpacks and, you know, all kinds of things.

I don't make a lot of satellite phone calls to family and friends but what I do is at least stay in email contact. I ask them to tell me what's going on in their lives too.

If it's only me telling stories, then I'm still working. I don't want to write another story when I'm emaling, I want to hear what they have to say because it makes me feel connected to them. It makes me feel like there is something going on, like there is an attachment to what's happening in their lives.

The Food
You have to eat the local food. I mean, you're just not really experiencing travel unless you eat what's in front of you.

I've eaten goat from street vendors in Afghanistan with no ill effects.

Feasting on camel meat in Somalia

But, the place I was most worried was probably Somalia. It wasn't so much the hygiene. It was just the look of the food. It's camel for breakfast, camel for lunch, camel for dinner. Camel gets old after a while.

I went to this one event where basically it was served in a huge bowl. It was filled with rice and raisins and huge chunks of camel meat. You aren't sure if you are getting a hump or a leg or whatever, but there are no utensils. You just grab it with your hands, even the rice. You scoop it up in a ball and then pop it in your mouth. And, if you haven't done this before, eating rice with just your hands isn't an easy thing to do.

They are looking at you and laughing and they want to make sure you like the camel. And, so you have to eat it and kind of smile. It's not that it tastes bad, it's just every single day, camel after camel after camel.

Khat vs. double latte
In Somalia everyone chews this thing called khat. Basically it's a legal drug. It's a narcotic but it's a shrub — it grows on the side of the road.

Basically, what they do is wad these leaves up. They put them in their mouths and they chew them. I thought, "I'm here. I might as well chew this khat."

It's probably the most disgusting thing because you have to chew a whole tree to get the same effects that you would with a double latte at Starbucks. It's supposed to give you a little stimulation. You drink tea while you are doing this. Basically it makes your teeth very green and it looks like you've just eaten a whole pile of parsley.

Technology
I'm not a technological person. To have this job, it seems very surprising. You know, I'm a person that likes to shoot with the camera on green, which is automatic. I don't like to make manual adjustments.

I'm not a computer nerd. I'm trained as a reporter. I had to add all the other things on: the shooting of videotape, the editing, the still photography and so on.

Sometimes the gear works for you, sometimes it doesn't. But what I've really learned on the road is that when you need something the most, that's when the gear is going to screw you.

When something goes wrong with your gear, you spend a lot of time with tech support. You have to talk to people, sometimes out in the field.

When you are 10,000 miles away in a remote location, and you are on a satellite phone, and it's costing about 12 dollars a minute to make this phone call, and you are talking to people who need to take you step by step by step through a process, and you know — all you can hear is that ka-ching of the cash register of how much money you are spending on this phone call.

But, you know it's essential. You won't be able to do your job. The technology is there for us to report anywhere in the world as a solo journalist right now — but it doesn't mean it's easy.

-transcribed by Hot Zone associate producer Erin Green 

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