59. Armed gunmen kidnapped her, the power of her mind saved her
All The Wiser
Kimi Culp
4.8 • 652 Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2022
⏱️ 86 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
She was being kidnapped. It took a while for that reality to set in. As an aid worker in Somalia, Jessica Buchanan was not supposed to be a target, but there was a lot of clan fighting in the southern part of the country, resources were scarce, and ransom demands could be sky high. What does it take to survive being held hostage under the worst imaginable conditions for weeks that turn into months? Jessica shares how to be the hero of your story and use any life-defining moment to show you what you’re made of.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Her moment of self-abandonment.
- Being abducted by Somali Pirates in October 2011.
- The routine and days of being a prisoner.
- How her mom, who passed just before the kidnapping, was able to help her.
- Being rescued by SEAL Team Six and her reintegration process.
- Life after she returned home and how she’s using this experience to build community.
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| 0:54.4 | everything secure. I did as any newlywed wife would do. I hopped on a UN plane and followed |
| 1:02.2 | him up to Somalia and made my new life there. They met at a nightclub in Nairobi where 32-year-old |
| 1:09.6 | Jessica Buchanan was working as a fourth-grade |
| 1:12.7 | teacher. She was doing what she had always wanted to do with her life, travel, meet new people, |
| 1:19.3 | and serve. And she continued to do aid work in Somalia, where she managed programs that |
| 1:25.6 | removed landmines across East Africa. It was meaningful work |
| 1:30.2 | and full of adventure. And then one day, she was asked to go on a field mission in southern |
| 1:36.4 | Somalia, and she had a very bad feeling about it. Everything in her body was telling her not to go, |
| 1:43.4 | but a more senior colleague, Powell, |
| 1:45.5 | told her that if she didn't go, he would report her to her supervisor, and she really loved her |
| 1:52.0 | job. So she and Powell went together, and on October 26, 2011, the unthinkable happened. |
| 2:01.3 | I will never forget, like, just this look really of, like, pity on his face, because he |
| 2:07.4 | understands that I haven't comprehended what's happening yet, and he just says, we're |
| 2:13.1 | being kidnapped. |
... |
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