100% Humboldt
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing Northcoast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt
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100% Humboldt
#90. From Humanitarian to Hostage: Jeff Woodke's Remarkable Journey
How do you survive when your captors view you as nothing more than a commodity? Jeff Woodke's answer is both heartbreaking and inspiring.
After dedicating 27 years to humanitarian work among nomadic tribes in Niger, Jeff was violently abducted by terrorists in 2016. For six and a half years, he endured unimaginable conditions – kept outdoors, frequently chained, moved constantly, and held in isolation. His captors told him bluntly, "You're nothing but a goat. If you end up dying, we'll just get another one."
In this deeply moving conversation, Jeff shares how he clung to faith when hope began to fail. "If memories have no mass, why are they so heavy?" he asks in one of the powerful poems he crafted mentally during captivity. Now known as "The Ransom Poet," Jeff reveals how writing became his lifeline when freedom seemed impossible.
Jeff takes us through the night of his abduction, when armed men killed his guards and severely beat him before taking him hostage. He describes the psychological torture of isolation, the physical hardships of outdoor confinement, and the surreal experience of return – including his first taste of freedom in the form of a glass of wine on an Air France flight home.
The story doesn't end with release. Jeff candidly discusses his ongoing journey of healing, his forthcoming memoir "All the Way Home," and how he's creating space for recovery through poetry and purpose. "I breathe space enough to fit all my feelings. I breathe space enough to find some kind of healing."
For anyone who has faced trauma, struggled with faith, or wondered what sustains the human spirit in darkness, Jeff Woodke's extraordinary testimony offers powerful insights into resilience, forgiveness, and finding your way back to life after devastating loss.
Follow Jeff's continuing journey at jeffwoodke.com and @theransomedpoet on Instagram.
About 100% Humboldt with Scott Hammond
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing North Coast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, and friends near and far. It's Scott Hammond with the 100% Humboldt Podcast. After a little sabbatical, here I am with my new best friend, jeff Woodke. Hi Jeff, hey Scott, how you doing? I'm well, it's good to see you.
Speaker 2:You've been out in the sun a little bit.
Speaker 1:You got a little tan going.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's summertime. It's summertime, it's river time.
Speaker 2:That's correct?
Speaker 1:You said you guys are at the river. Did you say Trinity?
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:Smith Smith River Better.
Speaker 2:Much better.
Speaker 1:Wild and scenic river Yep. We drove by it yesterday. We were coming back from Medford.
Speaker 2:Well, I was there yesterday swimming.
Speaker 1:I missed you. You didn't look hard enough, Got to seek deeper. Tell us the Jeff Woodkey story in just a minute. But we're going to do something unconventional with Nick Saprulli.
Speaker 2:Wait a minute. You want me to tell you my whole story in just one minute, or?
Speaker 1:After a minute oh. After a minute. So we understand that you write poetry, I do. We might as well just start with a poem.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm going to give you one that has to do with captivity, because I'm sure you're going to get to that, and it's called PTSD Postcards. And this talks about the night I was taken hostage. Things collected or picked up along the way All those years PTSD postcards stamped with old scars, gained from day to day, bought with blood and time. Show me yours and I'll show you mine. Muzzle, flash, darkness ripped in an orange gash, enlighting the night. It darkened my mind. Death so bright it drove me blind. I remember the sound of reality torn. I remember the sound of ghosts being born. I can never forget. If memories have no mass, why are they so heavy? To remember the journey is to remember the pain. In doing that, what's the gain? Life binds memory to flesh. To live is a chance of a new day, fresh. So we put our keepsakes on a mental shelf, remember the past, and then we discover ourselves. Life is so stubborn. I died, but I find that more than once or twice I'm born again. Thank you.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. That's great. I love your poetry, so you are the. The website is theransompoet. Yeah, and we could find that anywhere. Theransompoet. Yeah. And we could find that anywhere, theransompoetcom.
Speaker 2:No, that's on Instagram. It's Instagram okay, my website is just jeffwoodkeycom. And that's where all kind of stuff is.
Speaker 1:I see there I've actually kind of printed some of this stuff. So let's go way back to your childhood. Where were you born, where? So let's go way back to your childhood. Where were you born, where did you grow up at?
Speaker 2:And how did you get to Humboldt? I got to Humboldt in my 67 Chevy van Nice, didn't we all I? Came up here in 1979, after growing up in Fremont down in the Bay Area.
Speaker 1:And I came up for school.
Speaker 2:Nice 79? 79.
Speaker 1:for school Nice 79?, 79., 78 here.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we tease on the show Everybody has Cal Poly Humboldt, it's always Humboldt State.
Speaker 2:No, it's HSU Humboldt State.
Speaker 1:It's always HSU for me, anyway. So what did you study at Humboldt?
Speaker 2:Wildlife.
Speaker 1:Huh, you know that I came up as a wildlife manager management major and discovered that I was. I just didn't have the goods to do. The calculus, the physics, the chem, the basis and liberal studies became my.
Speaker 2:Well, if you don't like the math, then there you go. Don't go on the sciences that's right now.
Speaker 1:I stayed, stayed clear and uh glad I did got a good education up there yeah, it's a great place.
Speaker 2:I got my master's there too, a few years later what'd you study for your? Master's um. I got it in environmental systems okay, and my specialty was international development tech. Wow, yeah, with bob gerhardt.
Speaker 1:International Development Tech.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, with Bob Gerhardt, good man. Yeah, bob's great. I worked with Bob when I was back and forth, going back and forth to Africa.
Speaker 1:I worked with Bob down at the marsh for years in Arcata, so he was big.
Speaker 2:Was he the part of that, or was Klopp, or it was every? Well, that was back in the day when they built the enhancement wetlands out there. Yeah, but I worked with him at the treatment plant in Arcata. Okay, in Marsh Research. Is he? Still living? Yeah, is he? He's still out there. Is he In his chair at the desk?
Speaker 1:Gets down there, okay, good, yeah, so tell me about your Humboldt experience. How did you like it?
Speaker 2:I loved Humboldt. When I got here, this place was just magic for me, just something in the air and something in the people. Yeah, you got just these. Beautiful mountains and forests arise tier after tier, and you see them chewing up the morning fog into little bite-sized tendrils. And it's just a beautiful place.
Speaker 1:Watched it yesterday coming up off of the. You know the cliff drive on Lost, whatever that's called Last Chance, last Chance Grade. It was evaporating into the trees. They go. Oh, they're getting a drink right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you're not supposed to look up when you're driving down Last Chance Grade, that's true.
Speaker 1:Fortunately, jody was—thank you, jody, you're one of those guys, aren't you? Yeah, no, jody was driving. Yeah, all right, I'm the official napper, okay, yeah, well, I'll be eating and napping. She likes to drive, and I just thank you, han, for driving. So tell me more.
Speaker 2:So, so tell me more. So what did you do after Humboldt? In 1985 I joined Youth of the Mission and I went to Belize, central America, and I was there for a year or so and came back up here for kind of a year to work and earn some money. Porn con creator, do whatever I could. Had a few jobs, I think at that point Making tofu with Matthew.
Speaker 1:Great guy.
Speaker 2:Yep Doing all kinds of stuff, and then you got to be creative up here. You have to have more than one job. You have to be a person If you want to be able to make it. Matthew Schmidt Is that his last name? Yeah, matthew Schmidt. He sold the shop.
Speaker 1:Saw that. I saw him before church we have a cup of soup on Sundays and he came in and I'd watched him for months come in and making his final tofu runs and deliveries. And he was in line one morning and I said know what? I want to thank you. You're a faithful dude, you've done this for 40, 45 years and, um, a little tear came in his eye. It was like you know, it was like thank you for your service to a man who is a community builder, you know, and job builder and that's the thing.
Speaker 2:back then you had people that really wanted to start businesses to build the community. Yeah, Humboldt's a great place. It is a great place too. People have a lot of grace here. They're gracious to each other.
Speaker 1:I agree with that, and then I disagree with that and I think oh, what about those other guys that I thought?
Speaker 2:I mean the drivers on the freeway.
Speaker 1:You said there's an accident on the way in right.
Speaker 2:Something. I got off at South G and got rerouted along the bridge. Yeah, something was there. I wasn't going to be late.
Speaker 1:A friend said a lady stopped right in the Ventura Highway today in the middle of the break, all the way to stop to make a lane change. I said I'm glad it's you, Howard, and not me down there. It's 103 and drivers like that, so anyway. So I appreciate you joining us. If you're just joining us, I'm talking to my new best friend, jeff Woodkey, and you went to YWAM. That means you're a guy of the mission ilk.
Speaker 2:A missionary early. Yeah, I spent what 31 years, wow as a missionary and humanitarian aid worker, and when I was home I'd work with Bob Carehart and do whatever else I could. But yeah, that's what I did.
Speaker 1:Did you meet your wife during that time, or was that later's what I did? Did you meet your wife during that time or?
Speaker 2:was that later? Yeah, I did in, I guess 86. I came out of Morocco. I'd been in Morocco for almost a couple of years. I went to a conference in Amsterdam, and that's where I met Els. Was she YWAM-er too? She was at that point.
Speaker 1:Talk about else. She's super duper right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my wife is great, she's Dutch and she yeah.
Speaker 1:She still speak Dutch, I would imagine, so.
Speaker 2:Sure she does. Yeah, we have a child and my stepson Davidson, still in Holland, mm-hmm, and she speaks with him weekly.
Speaker 1:Oh, yep, so you know when they're he's talking to him, because they're Dutching it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't. We don't speak much Dutch together, but when she goes over, when I go over, I have to speak Dutch with all my brothers-in-law, so I've got eight of them.
Speaker 1:Do you have? Do you have? Are you fluent Um depends.
Speaker 2:Are you fluent? Depends on who you ask. If you ask me, I'd say yes.
Speaker 1:If you ask my wife, she'd laugh. Do you know what you just said, honey? Do you know?
Speaker 2:what you just said to them. I'm not fluent. No, Not anymore, certainly.
Speaker 1:So Morocco, back to Amsterdam, met Al's and came west again. Did you guys marry there?
Speaker 2:or here we got married in Holland what about that? In Amsterdam, huh, and we went directly to Niger that's what I was busy doing, getting the whole work set up In 87, we drove across the Sahara you can't do that anymore if you want to live, wow. And we drove across. We drove all through Niger and Burkina and Mali and all those places. Now, like Mali and Burkina, they're owned by the jihadis. Huh, so, but back then you know you could do what you wanted.
Speaker 2:So, just drove it for fun, or drove it to the point to go. We went down to go and check things out, see what was already going on, see what I could do. I wanted to start what's called a non-governmental organization. It's a humanitarian organization, because Niger was at that point the poorest country on the planet in the world I think it's still way down there and one of the most least developed or I guess one of the least developed countries so you started the project there yeah, I did.
Speaker 2:I started an organization called um ywm relief and development we kind of started that from the ground and got all of our—it was an international aid organization and we started working with nomadic pastoralist people way up in the bush near a town called Abilak.
Speaker 1:Wow. So you were really doing work for the communities, and actively—when I think of mission, I want to make a distinction. I think it's important when a lot of us think of missionaries as our young Mormon elders that are knocking at our door. That's not this. This is more hardcore in terms of you're living with people.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And we were out there and, no, that's not the kind of thing I had in mind. That's exactly the opposite of what I wanted to do, yeah, so we wanted to take care of people and that's what we did, basically, and what that meant for us was listening to folks and figuring out what they needed, what they wanted, what their aspirations were, and trying to figure out a way to work with their communities to make that happen. And we were successful. And we did church planting too, and it's still going on, without us, obviously, right, lots of folks, wow, I can't imagine A variety of folks that you must have met.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we worked with two different nomadic tribes and a lot of sedentary folks too.
Speaker 1:How are the nomads different there versus the nomads in McKinleyville or Humboldt in terms of just?
Speaker 2:Oh, you mean the travelers. Compare and contrast. Yeah Well, the cultures are radically different In Niger. They're pastoralists, they're moving with their herds, they're following the grass and the water and that's their lifestyle. They've got their languages and you know their dress and their habits, their faith and their daily lives and their routines.
Speaker 1:Are they kinder than an average American and somebody in our culture? I mean, is there a?
Speaker 2:Kinder? I don't know, that's kind of a weird yeah.
Speaker 1:Respectful gracious.
Speaker 2:They're very gracious folks, very hospitable, take care of you. Get on the wrong side and they might pull out their sword. Yeah, why go there Exactly? No, they're kind, but they've got their traditions and you have to know how to fit within that framework so you don't make an offense. Yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's just the respect so it says here. Focused on humanitarian aid. Community development, evangelism led projects related to clean water, food security.
Speaker 2:I don't know what that is. Well, people don't have the ability to purchase food all through the year. The prices fluctuate right, and when food gets scarce, prices go up. And we had I don't know how many basically famines, but we were not allowed to call them famines. We all had to call them food crises. So you know, there might be food in the market, but no one can afford it because there's such a shortage of it. There might be food in the market, but no one can afford it because there's such a shortage of it.
Speaker 2:So we would do things to try and build a cushion, a bumper, so that people would have a food reserve they could tap into at a low price when the hunger gap season came around. And we also worked on people trying to diversify their incomes so they didn't just rely on their animals, Because every time there's a drought their animals die and then they're down to nothing. So we would do herd reconstitution but also we'd try and diversify their income-generating activities with them, things they wanted to learn how to do. We'd help them learn them and set up new businesses. Wow, so they could integrate. You know, different types of eggs, not all in one basket.
Speaker 1:Right, right. Yeah, I know, I think that's brilliant.
Speaker 2:We won. We did a lot of disaster risk reduction. I won a UN award for the work in 2008. I was reading that yeah, Talk about that. That was the Saskawa Award. We did a lot of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction stuff and we were nominated for an award and we won. It's as simple as that. The United Nations looked at all the other competing projects and they thought it was a second place. We didn't get you know, first place, but it's the UN.
Speaker 1:That's a pretty big, pretty big outfit.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, it was a great encouragement to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. So we're leading to the captivity in that story and and want to hear about that Um in the meantime. So what? What was the buildup between that and and your actual abduction in in that that chapter? Uh, you guys, sounds like you served for a long time.
Speaker 2:We were in Niger for 27 years, so you were a fixture.
Speaker 2:You knew you had some embedded experience 27 years yeah, we'd been through everything the rebellion, you know, the civil war, I don't know how many coup d'etats. Well, we'd been through all that and I I was. I was administering a big grant, a big grant about a million pounds from the british government at that point, doing all these things I was just talking about. And we did other things too. We did a lot of land rights, trying to get the indigenous folks out there, their land rights. They would always have to wrestle and fight with the government. So we did workshops so we could help them know what their rights were and then we'd advocate for them and help them advocate for themselves.
Speaker 2:And it was high profile stuff but I tried to keep a low profile. When I was in country in 2006, my family moved back here. We bought the place in mckinleyville after my mother passed away and I got some inheritance money and we bought part of it. Anyway, the bank still owns a chunk and kids went to Mack High and I started doing kind of a ping pong, going over for a couple months and then coming home for a couple months.
Speaker 2:And when I was home I would work with Bob Gerhardt, like I was saying, and that went on for 10 years, but I was getting tired of the travel.
Speaker 1:It's just a nightmare trip, oh man, how many 24 hours.
Speaker 2:Easy, oh easy, it's three days to get there all the way.
Speaker 1:How many connections?
Speaker 2:yeah, you know, it depends on which way you go, but there's a couple and then there's a very long drive, you know. So it would take, you know, two days to get home and three days to get out there. Wow, I was tired and we were going to do finish the grant and then I was going to come back here and get what we call a real job. And um, at that point I don't know how many you know, probably 10,000 or 15,000 people we were working with. Wow and um, I had my staff going back and forth getting real tired. We had, I got, audited like four external or four, four audits a year and then one external audit. Wow.
Speaker 2:So I was constantly in the books and just working my butt off. So I was done and we wanted to. You know, just start doing something here, get the house paid off and retire. You know, just start doing something here, get the house paid off and retire. And, like I said, you know, when we were talking, my wife is still working because we have been unsuccessful in that. But yeah, a friend of mine who I respected a lot he was a local imam he passed away and I was very close to him and his family so I was a big part of the whole grieving process and there was the graveside and then there was a week of mourning.
Speaker 1:This is a holy man. Yeah, he was an imam.
Speaker 2:He was the leader of the Tu tuareg mosque. There were a couple different ethnic groups in town, a few actually and he, uh, he was a leader, you know, when he before he retired, but he passed away and and so he was very well respected and there were a lot of people that showed up. How old was he? How did? How did he die? Yeah, good question, there's not a lot of. It's not like here. You just get old and probably Parkinson's, I'm not sure. But he passed away. And age, that's also a relative thing, because not a lot of birth records, but probably in the 70s, late 70s, which in that setting is old.
Speaker 1:That's old.
Speaker 2:Anyway, he passed away and a lot of people came in and there were a lot of people that saw me. That made me really nervous, because there were, you know, we knew that all the terrorists that had taken over Mali and the French had gone in there to kick them out and there had been a war going on there for a long time, libya had collapsed, we'd always had smugglers going through the north and there was a mafia that ran that whole circuit and they didn't like me and I was named as an American agent, which I wasn't. But I guess if you're an American in that situation, everyone thinks you are anyway.
Speaker 1:Sure 27 years embedded. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they did not like me and I tried to never advertise my presence when I was local. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Even on my Facebook, I try to be really discreet about my travel schedule. Having said that, it sounds like this is high-level missionary stuff though High-level missionary stuff I mean within the realm Sounds like James Bond or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, undercover. No, it sounds. What little I know about missions is that this sounds like it was the real deal, and it was the real deal in that you had an impact.
Speaker 2:We did have an impact and we still are. Yeah, the Wadabe church we planted with one of the tribes is still going strong. You know they're probably in the thousands now. Wow. So and that's really good out there. Yeah, so we're, we're thankful for that. But and we've got kids that you know we built schools and they went to grade school and into university and they're in professional capacities and these were kids that were just running around. You know, no school, wow, Never, no-transcript. Then they just came and got me one night.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about that in a minute. If you're just joining us, my friend Jeff Woodkeep, from fellow McKinley Villain.
Speaker 2:Is that what we say? Mactown Villain?
Speaker 1:The MacTown Villain what else do they call it? There's a supposed gang in McKinleyville which is such an oxymoron. Is there an appropriate poem that you might have with you before we tell the story of the captivity? That might predispose us in some way to hear the story?
Speaker 2:Well, that was the one I read earlier.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Boy, you should ask me to switch them around.
Speaker 3:I'm really trying to press you here a little bit, boy, you should ask me to switch them around.
Speaker 1:I'm really trying to press you here a little bit and, like I said, if you're just joining us, if there's something that's appropriate or we could do it after.
Speaker 2:Either way, we can do one after I've got. Yeah, Okay, when I read the PTSD postcards, that would have been better, but it's already been read.
Speaker 1:Tell us the captivity story and the abduction and and I know there's a book that's done in big publish. We'll talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's coming out.
Speaker 1:Um.
Speaker 2:I'll, I'll. Hey, the mic is yours, the mic is mine. Um, yeah, it was on the in October 2016, on the 14th of October, which is my take date that's coming up. So this kind of this time of year is always a difficult time for me, and I came back from that funeral the last day of it, last night of it, and the electricity that we did have electricity finally in that little town, and but it was never very stable and it was out, it was hot and I had armed guards. I was obliged by the local government to hire soldiers to guard me at night. It was expensive and I had my own civilian guard night guard. Mm-hmm, he was there even when I wasn't there. The soldiers were only around when I was there. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:But he kind of watched the house and kept things up when I wasn't in country, mm-hmm, and we'd had a flood. A flash flood had come through, huh, and it knocked, it destroyed our whole neighborhood. Basically, my house was almost destroyed. All the walls around my house were gone. We don't have fences. We had mud walls, mm-hmm, and a mud brick and I'd been rebuilding them. I had one left and there was a road that ran in front of the place and the wall there was still down and I came in and I sat, I had the.
Speaker 2:The soldier was there, he was sitting on a bed. My night guard was there and they were making tea. And that's what you do you make this very strong green tea. They boil it in a little teapot. They'll boil it and boil it and add a bunch of sugar. It's bitter like eating aspirin, even with all that sugar, but it's the way it is, it's the tradition.
Speaker 2:And so they were pouring tea and they wanted me to sit and say hello and give them the news of the day, and you couldn't see anything just by the light of the little brazier they had with the coals. And so I sat down and the guard says there's that vehicle again, he's speaking Tamagic and he reaches for his rifle, his Kalashnikov, and he started to pick it up. And then into my vision, on the right, came a rifle barrel, oh boy. And then the muzzle flash. Huh, and that was that poem I read. Wow, the muzzle flash. And then people died and I hit the deck and I heard a lot of people dying and I heard a lot of gunshots and I figured I'm going to run. So I did, and um they, they got me. I didn't get that far. It was, you know, couldn't run far. You cannot run bullets either they're tough.
Speaker 2:So they, you know, they started using their, their rifle butts on me and they knocked me and knocked me, and knocked me. Finally they knocked me down by taking out my right Achilles with a rifle butt, Ouch, Severing it or most of it anyway, yeah, I was done. And then to the head and the body, and then they beat the crap out of me and threw me in their pickup and off we went. Huh.
Speaker 1:How many attackers do you figure?
Speaker 2:There were four Huh.
Speaker 1:And they came for you specifically. Do you believe? Or just to recap?
Speaker 2:They're mixed stories. I testified, or you know, are told, my crisis management team leader that they were moved to very secure locations because their you know teams were going to come to take an American agent hostage, to capture an American agent. I've also been told other things by other captors, but I think that's pretty credible, mm-hmm. I've also been told other things by other captors, mm-hmm, but I think that's pretty credible, mm-hmm. Okay.
Speaker 1:So they got you and you're in a truck heading somewhere.
Speaker 2:I had no clue. I mean I knew which direction we were going. Mm-hmm. But they stripped me naked, threw all my clothes out the window, my wedding ring, everything, wow Off I went and everything, wow Off.
Speaker 1:I went and busted Achilles.
Speaker 2:Yep, jeez Busted head that would really hurt. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, huh. So how long did that go on?
Speaker 2:My captivity, yeah, six and a half years Wow.
Speaker 1:Six and a half years, it's hard to envision going to prison.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what they call me a prisoner of war.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, Mm-hmm, and you transferred from several places too right during that journey.
Speaker 2:I transferred from different. Well, the terrorists that were holding me, that kidnapped me, were part of. They were their own group, but they were part of a larger umbrella organization called JANEM, and I'm not going to try and give you the actual name of it, that's just their acronym, and it was led by a fellow named Iyad Ahali still is a Tauric guy who'd gone terrorist. You know, they had their demands for me, and so I was moved around between the different groups until I finally got to Ansaruddin, which is one of the main groups, and that's where I stayed, for I was with them for the longest period, but I was never in one place. They moved me constantly and I was always outside. I was never in a building or under a roof.
Speaker 1:Were you with common other hostages that were?
Speaker 2:No, I was kept in isolation Solo Wow, Because they thought I was an agent. So I was chained up and kept in isolation.
Speaker 1:Interrogation of course.
Speaker 2:At first they interrogated me yeah, but I mean it wasn't you didn't have a lot to say, probably no, I mean it wasn't you didn't have a lot to say. Probably no, I mean they didn't want to know all about the secret American bases. What do I know? So you know, I figured if they wanted me dead they would have killed me. Yeah, so when they pull out the knife and they stick it on your throat or whatever it's like, yeah, sure you're not.
Speaker 1:And their motivation was what? That someday you'd be worth some money to the team.
Speaker 2:Not money, not just money. They want to get their. They've got Mujahideen that are prisoners in West African jails and they've got people in Guantanamo and they've got people in US prisons and they tried to leverage me for them, ah, and it was unsuccessful.
Speaker 1:These are valuable captors to them.
Speaker 2:They just if you're a Westerner, you've got a market value. You're not a human being.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's all currency.
Speaker 2:They look at you like an animal, like a goat, and that's what they told me. You're nothing but a goat. If you end up dying, we'll just get another one. Yeah. So there's absolutely no empathy, yeah, and I mean I lived with Muslims for what you know, 27, 28 years and I never met any like those people.
Speaker 1:So they are iconic in their nature versus the average Muslim person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, muslims never bore me any will whatsoever. Yeah, they were always kind, and you know. And then these people. It took me a while to understand or to get my mind around the fact that these people that looked exactly like the people I've been working with were acting so completely opposite and you know it was. It was hard, but they'd been radicalized and and um, that's something we're seeing here now. Yeah, and not with Muslims.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, Exactly. Yeah. So toward the end it was tough and I've heard some of the story. Do you want to share some of that in terms of the end?
Speaker 2:the whole time was tough whole time was tough. Um well, you know I learned about I had to. I was always promised better treatment I get out of my chains, it wouldn't knock me around. You know, I wouldn't be isolated. I get a radio or whatever it might be. They even promised me another wife.
Speaker 2:I said I got a wife and they said, well, get a new one. They're very misogynistic, you know, and if I would become a Muslim then all these things would happen. But I never did and I needed to keep my faith. But that wasn't easy, because when you've been praying for years and years, okay, it's about time to go home, god, and then nothing happens. I don't hear from anybody. I thought my family was dead. I did hear about COVID, but then you get no details, just everyone's dying of this massive virus, right, and so I didn't hear from my family.
Speaker 1:But then you get no details.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just, everyone's dying of this massive virus, right? And so I didn't hear from my family. I presumed them dead, because you know you're in solitary confinement for six and a half years. Mm-hmm, you kind of get loopy.
Speaker 1:But they were stateside correct. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, else was McKinleyville. Yeah, kids were Matthew Works in Blue Lake, bobby was down in Davis getting his PhD and Tim lives here in Eureka.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Family was here, so talk about the release. Then what happened?
Speaker 2:Well, by the end I was done, you know, and the American government had washed their hands of me. They weren't even trying to negotiate or do anything to get me out. Trump didn't do a thing in four years and they've been trying to get information on me, my location, so they could send in whatever special forces unit to get me, which is probably going to get the hostage killed and get me which probably going to get the hostage killed and finally they said they weren't going to do that anymore either.
Speaker 2:But this is after Biden had come in and they had made an attempt to negotiate and they gotten the demands down to a chunk of money and then, because the FBI took all the prisoner exchange off the table because they didn't want to do prisoner swap, the ransom demand in terms of cash doubled. My wife didn't have that kind of money. Who has $6 million, yeah, and she couldn't raise it legally. If you're rich, you can pay that ransom legally Because you don't have to raise it.
Speaker 2:I see you could write a check Yep, or make a wire transfer more like it.
Speaker 2:Not a lot of millionaire missionaries probably out there, no, and there are people that wanted to give but they couldn't do it legally. So she complained to the Secretary of State. She was courageous, she spoke to, I think, two secretaries of state, wow, and she was always in DC and, running around advocating, had a little crisis management team. I didn't know any about it, I never got any videos, but it was the end and I was done and I was hunger striking because I was tired of being kept in chains. My faith was, my hope was gone let's put it that way and my faith was almost gone, but I couldn't give up praying for my family because I loved them. So there's a Bible verses that says these three abide faith, hope and love. But of these three, love is the greatest, mm-hmm. And that became true to me. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:That you know, at the end of everything, I still had this love in my heart for my family and for God too, and so I didn't give up praying, but I gave up ever getting out. Yeah, so I was hunger striking because I I didn't care if I lived or died, and I, and it worked, and I got power. But you had to be willing to go all the way how long did?
Speaker 2:you. My longest was about 10 days and then no water, and once I threw the water away I went like one day without water and it's hot and um, they came quick.
Speaker 1:They mean two days. I'd be meeting captors to take care of you. Yep, what did that mean? Did you get out of chains or hospital? No, no.
Speaker 2:They took the chains off and they started, and at that point in time the US had washed their hands of me. They said, no, no more, if he doesn't get rescued then he's not going to come home. But there was a fella I can't tell you his name, but he's not going to come home. Wow. But there was a fellow I can't tell you his name, but he's one of my heroes. He'd been running the group to try and find information on me for the government, but when they canceled that contract, he kept doing it on his own money. And that's expensive, I bet, yeah.
Speaker 2:And he opened up a line of communications with Yair Ghali, the leader, and, you know, started just wheeling and dealing on his own without any government, and it worked. And he managed to work out a deal with the French and the Nigerians and the terrorists Wow. And so as soon as the terrorists knew that there were positive negotiations happening, they were willing to improve my treatment. Makes sense, yeah. And so they didn't want me to die at that point. So they started, you know, trying to keep my morale up. I was already kind of insane by that time you talk about that in the book, a little bit before I was released, or 10 days before I was released, I had been given a cot. Finally.
Speaker 2:I'd been sleeping on the ground outside in the rain and the mud and everything else for years and then they finally gave me a cot and a little radio. I had a radio for eight months before I was released and I listened to it in the morning the French news and I heard just about some trouble. So I went out to pee and then I came back and I was praying and the guards thought I was bad-mouthing them or something because I was speaking in English and they came running over and yelling at me so I just yelled back. I wasn't taking any BS at that point.
Speaker 2:Nothing to lose here, and so you know, it escalated and the guy comes up with his rifle and he's pointing it. I mean, he starts shooting at my feet. I'm like look here. And I gave him some choice American words that I probably can't say. Yeah, I said go ahead.
Speaker 1:You such and such Mofo.
Speaker 2:He raised your aim, uh-huh Right here and I got my chest. Wow, he was going to kill me. And then the other guy grabbed the barrel and I was like, well God, I'm kind of upset here because that was my ticket home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was my ticket out of this mess. And what's a guy got to do to die? Yeah, come on God. And 10 days later, but I had no idea that was coming. Wow.
Speaker 1:And now you're on airplanes and seeing people and eating food.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, we. You know I didn't believe that we were going to get released and you know they took me out to this spot in the desert and they dumped me off with another hostage they brought in it was going to go out at the same time named Olivier Dubois, french guy, the journalist, french journalist, yeah. And Olivier was the one that convinced me that.
Speaker 1:So you believe this is some sort of a setup?
Speaker 2:Oh well, you know they said I was going to leave I don't know how many times and you know you never go but he's all like no, look at that guy and look at that guy. These are all big bosses. They wouldn't be here if we weren't going. And they're all on their sat phones in the clear. What are you doing on your sat phone? You're going to get helicoptered, you know. But there was something going on, because they're on their sats and I was, I guess you're right. So I started to eat and then, a day and a half later, they drove us over a line somewhere into niger, told us to get out, pick up and they drove off that was it, that was it, and there
Speaker 2:was some, some other guys over there, across this black parking lot of it wasn't a parking lot, it was just little black rocks, the desert, flat. And we, you know, I limped because I couldn't walk without a cane stick. I had to get naked again because the French didn't want us to approach them until we'd stripped and sure. So I went into captivity naked and I came out naked and were born and died naked. Well, I haven't died yet, but kind of. And so then we got, you know, they took us out in the C-130. They landed it out there in the middle of nowhere. Is that right? Wow, french version of it. I think that I mean what do I know what? It looked like. The whole back end opened up it. That it looked like it, the whole back end opened up, it's a huge beast.
Speaker 1:And here you're in the belly of this giant aircraft and then we went to Niamey. Where'd you go, did you?
Speaker 2:say Niamey, niamey, the capital of Niger. Okay and yeah, it took a few days before I got stateside, I couldn't fly. Initially I had some medical issues that kept me from flying, and then we got on the Air France and the FBI uses what they call bad guy money, which is really cool. It's what they get from bad guys, you know.
Speaker 1:It spends well.
Speaker 2:Oh man, they put first class Air France. Attaboy. Yeah yeah, that was nice A little cubicle and everything. And this lady comes and she's got wine. I'm like I didn't drink wine, I drank beer back then. And it's like she shows me this bottle. I'm like what are you showing it to me for? And then she pours a little in the cup. It's so simple. I'm like really, just fill the stupid thing up, lady.
Speaker 1:Don't be shy Get in here.
Speaker 2:And from that moment on, I have just loved wine. Yeah, it's just yeah, yeah, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1:Red wine man.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's.
Speaker 1:that was a big change for me, but that was freedom A beer guy and then a wine guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, wine is freedom, you see, yeah.
Speaker 1:And, uh, came home Fruit of the vine. So I remember flying first class. One time they brought us hot cookies and a little glass of milk ice cold milk and I'm going. I see why they do this, you can never afford it, but I get the argument.
Speaker 2:Well, it was an expensive flight. So you had two FBI agents sitting up there with me. Those guys got First class too. Yeah, they should have been. So you got off. And we had two FBI agents sitting up there with me. Those guys got First class too yeah, they should have been back with the scraps, but yeah, whatever, some of the benefits, I suppose.
Speaker 1:So you arrived in McKinleyville one afternoon or morning, and At night it was a night flight.
Speaker 2:We were on a late flight and it was pouring rain. How?
Speaker 1:about that.
Speaker 2:And they almost didn't land. They serve it like three times before they get down. Typical McKinleyville weather.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. Yeah, three times, though that's but they landed. They usually do a one-off and then they're gone.
Speaker 2:Nope, three times they circled.
Speaker 1:How about that?
Speaker 2:And it was rain, not fog.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a difference.
Speaker 2:And they landed and we got out and then in the airport there must have been 150 people there with signs.
Speaker 1:Also mind-blowing. I bet for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was amazing, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Kind of living, a surreal sort of a I can't even imagine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it took me a long time to even begin to adjust, you know, to having choices again and having a bed.
Speaker 1:So you drove home to McKinleyville and laid in this bed. Yeah, wow, yeah, great story.
Speaker 2:And I thought we lost the house. I didn't think we had anything.
Speaker 1:So we're going to talk about the book and the website and all the stuff here in a minute, but we're just going to change it up on you because I wouldn't want to leave you out of this part of the show. So this is the show, the part of the show where there's a quiz, uh-oh, and your favorite chocolate guys have supplied you a Baylis Toledo 72% dark chocolate Belize. Belize, turns out it goes really well with red wine, who knew? But this isn't yours yet, because you have to answer some questions first.
Speaker 1:Oh man, are you ready?
Speaker 2:Well, I might see Deanna tonight and I'm going to tell you can tell her.
Speaker 1:This came from her hand. Question number one.
Speaker 2:Best day of your life, yeah, when I got off the airport in SFO or off the airplane in SFO. Was Els down there yeah she went to San Francisco, which is where I came in To get you, so you flew back with Zell's Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I bet that was lovely.
Speaker 2:So that was. I saw her, Matt and Bob Wow, In this nasty little hallway in the back corner of San Francisco International. A couple of tears. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Mm Yep Imagine I like what Gandalf said to Frodo at the end of the movie. He said not all tears are evil.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I like that.
Speaker 2:It's great, it's poetic, it's good If you would have asked me that one, I would have missed it. Yeah, good, good part of the movie.
Speaker 1:Question number two what do you find fulfilling Writing? Oh, that's right, you're a writer, I are. Yeah, I do write. Steve Martin said some people have a way with words and others don't have a way. So I like that. And you're a poet and you've written a book. We'll talk about it in a minute.
Speaker 2:Not a poetry book. Not yet. No, not yet Exactly.
Speaker 1:I'm sure we could talk about that. No, not yet Exactly. I'm sure we could talk about that.
Speaker 2:What do you find soul-sucking and crushing for you when you witness something that just empties you inside and hurts?
Speaker 1:Yeah, ice raids, ice raids, Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're not talking about people going to the ice machine at the hotel Right, talking about families with children, the ice machine at the hotel Talking about families with children. Yeah, people getting kidnapped, mm-hmm Kind of triggers me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could see why We'll go a little lighter here. You and Els get to eat any restaurant tonight. That's on Joni and I or it's with Joni, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:Where would you guys go eat Larapin's.
Speaker 1:Larapins, larapin, okay, larapin Cafe. Like what is that Nick? Like 10 to 1 larapin over 90 episodes, something like that. I can't see him, so I think he's nodding.
Speaker 2:They're like the only ones left really.
Speaker 1:Oh, they're amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gosh, I think brick and fire is good too. We like that.
Speaker 1:Brick and fire. It's been a minute, but I want to go back. That's always consistent, hey, best cup of coffee in Humboldt.
Speaker 2:Oh, brio, brio, good one Cafe Brio.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have that some sort of roast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they won't tell you what it is either. Yeah, it's a special roast Pretty dang good, I Pretty dang good, I've had their coffee.
Speaker 1:We had some coffee in Utrecht in the Netherlands. It's called Keen K-E-E-N and this guy had these exotic roasts from all over coffee territory. He had a thing called Geisha and it was like no cream in this joint. You're not going to wreck it with some milk and just the notes of the cobs like sippingpping. You know, it's like going to a fancy winery. It was pretty, it was good coffee, alright. Last question for all the marbles who are you and what do you want?
Speaker 2:um, yeah, I don't know if I can answer that. It's okay, I'm finding out who I am. Okay, that's half of your answer, that.
Speaker 1:It's okay, I'm finding out who I am. Okay, that's half of your answer. That's a good answer. And what do I want?
Speaker 2:Discovery. Yeah, I want to be able to help people that's awesome and I want to be able to take care of people that have had trauma.
Speaker 1:God bless you. That's awesome Good answer. Hey, with that, folks, we have a winner, jeff Woodke. I'd like to present you with this official Dick Taylor 72% Dark Belize, belize. You gotta Belize it Because you were there. Yeah, you've been here. This was from Toledo, which it looks like it's on the southern part of this Maya Mountain Cacao, dried Plum, tart, cherry and Jasmine flavors. There we go, congrats.
Speaker 2:Elsa and I will and probably Deanna too will meet some of us tonight at our poetry group. There you go. Is Deanna a poet? Yes, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:I'm not supposed to talk about that.
Speaker 2:but yeah, deanna, you're on man.
Speaker 1:You're on. Next, I want to hear your poetry. We've had Adam on and Johnny goes. Why don't you have Deanna? She's got a lot of stories. I don't know why I don't. She's a midwife. You know that. She is a great historical midwife and current. Where are we at time-wise? Can I just check? Hey, we're doing great. Tell us about the book. You got an upcoming book. You wrote a book. It's being published.
Speaker 2:Go the book. The book is called All the Way Home and I wrote a bunch of books in my head because I didn't have anything else to do. I was a hostage. But this book isn't any of those, Because everyone said, if you're going to do something, do your memoir first. So I did and I wrote it. It took me about six months. Um, I hired an editor. I wrote myself. I didn't use a ghostwriter, but I did hire an editor, cause there's no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting. Ah and um.
Speaker 1:I never heard that. This is totally true though it is.
Speaker 2:And so with Lauren Wolf she's an amazing editor, New York Times journalist, former New York Times journalist we worked on that manuscript and then I couldn't get an agent because no one wants to touch memoir. Took a long time but I finally got Chip McGregor, who was a great agent, top three or four for memoir and well, we sold that book. Within a month and a half after I got him, HarperCollins picked it up, their Christian imprint, which a lot of people know as Zondervan, and I didn't want a Christian imprint because I didn't want the book to be, you know, pigeonholed.
Speaker 1:Limited by that.
Speaker 2:Yeah so, but they promised me that we'll do a bigger marketing campaign, so I've been working with them the last few months. We signed the contract and we did all the edits that they wanted done, which weren't a lot because Lorna had done such a good job. Wow. It's doing a copy edit now, which is where they're making sure everything's spelled right and there's no punctuation errors, and then it'll be typeset and then we'll go into marketing, but it won't be out for a while because they want to fall release.
Speaker 1:We can't get this and the title again all the way home it'll have a website. I'm sure what's the? It's all in play.
Speaker 2:Yeah, be on amazon um, I think it'll probably just be through harper collins directly, unless they've got a link through Amazon. We'll talk about that in the marketing meeting that's coming up.
Speaker 1:Probably a Kindle version at some point, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:There'll be an Audible and an e-book and all Hopefully do the reading for the Audible. I was going to ask that That'd be cool. Yeah, hey, it pays $300 an hour. Hey, you're down and hopefully we're going to have dramatic rights sold pretty quick. Wow, we'll get a documentary and maybe a feature film out of it. Wow, we've got about 20 different, you know, production companies interested, so hopefully that'll happen soon. That'd be cool. It will be cool.
Speaker 1:What about the guys in atlanta that did uh, fireproof and did all the what are the other movies I'm thinking about? They did um, they produced all their own stuff. They're from a giant church in georgia, in atlanta, georgia, and they did um courageous, it was a movie they did oh yeah, um, I don't. I mean, I don't know who, what do I know there there's probably.
Speaker 2:My.
Speaker 1:Maybe you want the new guy out there.
Speaker 2:Chip McGregor. He's a great agent and he's working.
Speaker 1:So they would do a screenplay of this and a rewrite.
Speaker 2:Well, they do probably a documentary first, and then they'll do a screenplay for a feature film.
Speaker 1:That would be cool.
Speaker 2:That would be very cool. Ka-ching, ka-ching. Well at this point we're looking for ka-chings, ka-chings Still in the mission field, however, no, not really A different one, kind of yeah, yeah, I mean I worked to get other hostages out.
Speaker 2:We did, let's talk about that we were supposed to be getting Julian out Romanian. But then you know, after all the hostages got out of, they were held by Jane and were released. I, you know, we didn't have the funds, we didn't have the network to do that anymore, sure. So at this point my only job is writing.
Speaker 1:Good, hey, good poetry Speaking of which, see, I made that smooth segue into the next poem Would you would you, would you oblige us?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what do you want? I've got a humble, a real humble one.
Speaker 1:Let's, you know, let's do that. One last Cause it's Humboldt County. Did you see that we're from Humboldt County over here with our official?
Speaker 2:I couldn't tell oh yeah, this one is called the Road Home.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:It's kind of Humboldt County, but not really Obviously. I got a therapist. Everyone should get one, yeah, and this is kind of something my therapist always tells me. She says well, you got to make space. You got to make space. If you want to stay alive and you don't want to give in to the final solution, then you have to make space in your life, in your mind, in your heart. And so I've been learning how to do that and I want to go with it.
Speaker 2:Shimmering, so close it whispers, touch it. The bright horizon of death, the space between us. A single breath. A single breath, that's all my breaths. A single death, that's all my deaths. A single choice that's mine to make. A single death, that's all my deaths. A single choice that's mine to make. A single step that's mine to take.
Speaker 2:Breathe deeper. She speaks. I obey Expanding space. Captivity crumbles, walls falling away, room to cry there's a bit more of it now. I try to do it, but I don't remember how. I make room enough for my dead heart to beat. I make room enough to shake the chains from my feet. I make room enough to find the tears that I lost. I make room enough to count freedom's cost. Breathe even deeper.
Speaker 2:She speaks Again. I obey Rage. Its red. Obey Rage. Its redness fills my soul Burning. It consumes my space. Again. I fight the flames.
Speaker 2:The only weapons I have are paper and pen. I write turning flaming blood to ink. I write making room for my heart to think. I write to feel what I can never say. I write to feel what I can never say. I write to make room to live one more day. Fill your life with breath, she speaks. I inhale Home. I can't quite get there. I'm betrayed by my own tricks of survival. They got me back, but I was dead on arrival.
Speaker 2:I rhyme to bring myself back to life. I rhyme some room for my kids and my wife. I rhyme enough space that I'm no longer alone. I rhyme enough space to put my family at home. Breathe out love, she speaks. I exhale Shimmering. I reach out and touch it the bright horizon of forgiveness. It lets me expand in love, though I still feel pain from all I've witnessed. I breathe space enough to fit all my feelings. I breathe space enough to find some kind of healing. I breathe space enough to fit you in my heart. I breathe space enough for us all. It's only a start. Walk in this land. She speaks, I journey on. Whoa.
Speaker 2:I don't have a mic to drop, but I'd do it if I did.
Speaker 1:That'd be a good mic drop moment. Man, that was rich, love it. Thank you, you're welcome, jeff. Thanks for being here. You're welcome. Are we done?
Speaker 2:We're almost done, so we're going to learn how to get a hold of you, so you're on Instagram. I am on Instagram. What's your handle?
Speaker 1:The Ransom Poet and on the gram, on the Instagram, you got a website. I have a jeffwoodkeycom w-o-o-d-k-e. Yep dot com, dot com, and then that's that's.
Speaker 2:His website was built by Matt Beard. None other than Matt Beard. Matt Beard, the man the myth, the legend. The man, the myth, the legend, the artist it's a cool website.
Speaker 1:I like your website Simple.
Speaker 2:He'll be there tonight too. Oh, really, tell him hi.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I will. Indiana man, you guys got all the. I'm going to your place.
Speaker 2:We got all the cool people All the cool guys.
Speaker 1:Hey, thanks again for being here, thanks again for listening, and if you want to like us say so, check the boxes, do.
