Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

334 OUT OF CAPTIVITYMuddy Waters would come out of that little plastic box. Suddenly a bit ofhome was transplanted into the jungle. We also listened to Radio Netherlandsand a weekly program called Curious Orange. After a hard day’smarch, it was always good to have something to settle down with. Musickept us going during the day—all we had to do was to mention the title ofa song and we were off in our heads and out of the mud and the mire.One night we were listening to Radio Netherlands, waiting for CuriousOrange to come on. The program was in English, and we heard amention of Colombia and the FARC. A young Dutch woman had lefther family at the age of twenty-two. She told her family and friends thatshe was going to Colombia to teach poverty-stricken kids. For the pasttwo years, no one had heard from her. She was from a fairly wealthyfamily, had spent a semester in Colombia, and was fluent in Spanish,English, German, and Dutch.Marc said to me, “Do you remember—”I cut him off. “I know where you’re going with this. The pretty girl atthe proof of life. I knew she was from somewhere else. I thought Cuba,but who knew?”“That was her. How many other European-looking women are runningaround with the FARC?”“How the hell does a young Dutch girl get mixed up with this bunch?”I thought again of Lauren and was grateful that no matter what else, Icould count on her not having joined a terrorist organization, unlesssomething had drastically changed at the Delta Delta Gamma sorority.We listened a while longer and learned that the young woman’s namewas Tanja Nijmeijer. The description they gave of her fit with what weremembered. How she’d ended up with the FARC was difficult to figureout. She’d said all the right FARC bullshit and she could hardlybreathe without uttering something anti-American. That fit with theprofile of the young idealist her family and friends described who wasso upset with the social and economic injustice she’d seen in Colombiathat she’d gone back to help right the wrongs.