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American Morning

Culture Shock

Aired December 05, 2003 - 09:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Talk about a reality check. The Lockett family of Detroit, Michigan trades all the comforts of home for life in a faraway land. Their excellent adventure is part of National Geographic's reality show called "Worlds Apart." Now after traveling to a tiny village in the mountains of Peru , the Locketts experiences distant culture firsthand, starting with breakfast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is breakfast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The intestine of the guinea pig and a little potatoes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had enough gerbils yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Worlds apart airs Monday night, 8:00 Eastern on the National Geographic Channel. We're joined by four of the five members, Walter, Portia, Azel and Encore. Asa is taking school exams, I'm told, so he's not able to make it.

But it's nice to have you guys. Thanks for joining us.

That clip, where they're holding up, for anyone who couldn't understand the accented English, intestines of the guinea pig is how you start for breakfast. And you say, no, gracias, which I thought was holding it together pretty well, Portia.

Give me a sense, give me the gory details of what the experience was like.

PORTIA LOCKETT: With the intestines?

COOPER: Across the board.

P. LOCKETT: It was just a phenomenal experience. It was a lot of unexpected things that were going on starting from the experience of our first meal was eating the guinea pig itself, the opportunity to sleep on the ground with lambskin wool, with the guinea pigs all around.

O'BRIEN: You call it the opportunity. You are a woman who spins things in a very positive way. You were sleeping on the ground with the little guinea pigs that you would eat the next morning as was traditional there, running around. Give me more details. WALTER LOCKETT: Well, we had to look at it like that. Because, if not, it would have been a horrendous experience. The challenges and the differences with our culture were difficult to deal with, so we had to, like you said, like Portia put a spin on it, but the most difficult thing was dealing with the altitude, and the demands of the physical labor.

O'BRIEN: They had you taking on the traditional roles of the men and the women and the children in society. And you were doing back- breaking work. Why would you want to put yourselves through this? I mean, this is two weeks. You didn't have to do it.

W. LOCKETT: Well, we did it, because we thought the experience would make our family appreciate the things that we so greatly take for granted here in America. All the creature comforts we wake up, we push buttons, we flip switches, we turn keys. There was none of that. And there's not a day that goes by now that we don't appreciate those things.

Portia, I understand you're the kind of gal who's organized, as everybody in your family, watching you with your cute pants and cute boots on. I'm thinking, how did this woman survive? Even though it was under two weeks. You're the kind of person who has everybody on a day planner in your family because you like things to run smoothly. There was a moment where you lost it, you broke down.

P. LOCKETT: Right.

O'BRIEN: Describe that for me.

P. LOCKETT: It was really hard because I'm so used to being in control of my time and what's going to happen next, where I had to turn my whole life over to someone else to say this is what we want to do now, this is what's coming next, this is where you're going to eat, this is where you're going to sleep, and it just start to build up and I can see the anxiety kicking in for my kids, as well as for myself. I said oh, my God, I need a break, I need a moment here just to chill. Everybody's just like...

O'BRIEN: They're saying chill. How can you say "chill" in Spanish.

I want to get to the buys before we run out of time. You guys, no toys, no games, no game boy, no video games. No nothing. How was it?

AZAL LOCKETT: For me, it was real challenging, because they had no electronics, and they make toys out of strings and bottle caps. And they would just be holes in them and they would play with them. And they would cut each other's string. And they just made something out of nothing.

O'BRIEN: Good experience, though? Encore? Encore's not going back, but I got the feeling the rest of you guys got a lot out of this trip.

P. LOCKETT: We will never, ever forget it.

O'BRIEN: Well, I thank you.

W. LOCKETT: I'd go back.

O'BRIEN: You would?

Thank you for coming in to talk about the experiences. The show, again, airs on Monday, and it's really a wonderful concept, a wonderful idea, and I'm glad to hear you say you think you got a all right lot out of it for your family. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 5, 2003 - 09:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Talk about a reality check. The Lockett family of Detroit, Michigan trades all the comforts of home for life in a faraway land. Their excellent adventure is part of National Geographic's reality show called "Worlds Apart." Now after traveling to a tiny village in the mountains of Peru , the Locketts experiences distant culture firsthand, starting with breakfast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is breakfast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The intestine of the guinea pig and a little potatoes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had enough gerbils yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Worlds apart airs Monday night, 8:00 Eastern on the National Geographic Channel. We're joined by four of the five members, Walter, Portia, Azel and Encore. Asa is taking school exams, I'm told, so he's not able to make it.

But it's nice to have you guys. Thanks for joining us.

That clip, where they're holding up, for anyone who couldn't understand the accented English, intestines of the guinea pig is how you start for breakfast. And you say, no, gracias, which I thought was holding it together pretty well, Portia.

Give me a sense, give me the gory details of what the experience was like.

PORTIA LOCKETT: With the intestines?

COOPER: Across the board.

P. LOCKETT: It was just a phenomenal experience. It was a lot of unexpected things that were going on starting from the experience of our first meal was eating the guinea pig itself, the opportunity to sleep on the ground with lambskin wool, with the guinea pigs all around.

O'BRIEN: You call it the opportunity. You are a woman who spins things in a very positive way. You were sleeping on the ground with the little guinea pigs that you would eat the next morning as was traditional there, running around. Give me more details. WALTER LOCKETT: Well, we had to look at it like that. Because, if not, it would have been a horrendous experience. The challenges and the differences with our culture were difficult to deal with, so we had to, like you said, like Portia put a spin on it, but the most difficult thing was dealing with the altitude, and the demands of the physical labor.

O'BRIEN: They had you taking on the traditional roles of the men and the women and the children in society. And you were doing back- breaking work. Why would you want to put yourselves through this? I mean, this is two weeks. You didn't have to do it.

W. LOCKETT: Well, we did it, because we thought the experience would make our family appreciate the things that we so greatly take for granted here in America. All the creature comforts we wake up, we push buttons, we flip switches, we turn keys. There was none of that. And there's not a day that goes by now that we don't appreciate those things.

Portia, I understand you're the kind of gal who's organized, as everybody in your family, watching you with your cute pants and cute boots on. I'm thinking, how did this woman survive? Even though it was under two weeks. You're the kind of person who has everybody on a day planner in your family because you like things to run smoothly. There was a moment where you lost it, you broke down.

P. LOCKETT: Right.

O'BRIEN: Describe that for me.

P. LOCKETT: It was really hard because I'm so used to being in control of my time and what's going to happen next, where I had to turn my whole life over to someone else to say this is what we want to do now, this is what's coming next, this is where you're going to eat, this is where you're going to sleep, and it just start to build up and I can see the anxiety kicking in for my kids, as well as for myself. I said oh, my God, I need a break, I need a moment here just to chill. Everybody's just like...

O'BRIEN: They're saying chill. How can you say "chill" in Spanish.

I want to get to the buys before we run out of time. You guys, no toys, no games, no game boy, no video games. No nothing. How was it?

AZAL LOCKETT: For me, it was real challenging, because they had no electronics, and they make toys out of strings and bottle caps. And they would just be holes in them and they would play with them. And they would cut each other's string. And they just made something out of nothing.

O'BRIEN: Good experience, though? Encore? Encore's not going back, but I got the feeling the rest of you guys got a lot out of this trip.

P. LOCKETT: We will never, ever forget it.

O'BRIEN: Well, I thank you.

W. LOCKETT: I'd go back.

O'BRIEN: You would?

Thank you for coming in to talk about the experiences. The show, again, airs on Monday, and it's really a wonderful concept, a wonderful idea, and I'm glad to hear you say you think you got a all right lot out of it for your family. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com