Surviving A Kidnapping Against Impossible Odds - the Jessica Buchanan story... In Somalia, Surviving A Kidnapping Against 'Impossible Odds' May 14, 2013 - In 2011, Jessica Buchanan was an aid worker in northern Somalia, helping to raise awareness about how to avoid land mines. The north was the relatively safe section of the country; that October, she traveled to the more dangerous southern region for a training. The night before she left, she texted her husband, Erik Landemalm, also an aid worker in Somalia. She asked him a question: "If I get kidnapped on this trip, will you come and get me?"