Nigel Brennan

When I've been allowed to sit outside in the compound and wash clothes, obviously have been watching planes coming in, you know, to land.

So we're obviously somewhere close to Mogadishu, like we're not too far away.

so i've been watching those commercial airliners sort of come in and then disappear behind the compound wall and said look we might be 10 20 kilometers from from the airport i don't know like it's a guess but i'm pretty sure it's in that direction and i said maybe if we go under the cover of darkness so after last prayer you knock to go to the toilet and i will pretty much just follow you out of my room

We've got our bags, our camera bags and stuff like that, and we can just pretty much chuck those out the window and run for it.

and it was like yeah that's that sounds like a plan um even though amanda had said the night that um they drove her out to do that fake assassination she said we're driving past um men on the street sitting around fires with ak-47s and stuff like that it's just like well maybe under the cover of darkness we can we can run we can try and knock on someone's door see if they'll help us

So that was the plan, and sure enough, that night, right after the final prayer, I heard Amanda knock, and I was standing there with my bag, ready to go, saw her walk past and just froze.

I was just like, fuck, I'm so terrified.

Today is the day I could potentially die.

and could hear her pacing in the bathroom.

And after a minute or two, she came back.

She's like, what the fuck are you doing?

I said, I'm fucking scared.

Like, I need to psych myself up for this.

And she's like, I'm going to go back to the room.

I'm going to give you half an hour and I'm going to knock again.

And I'm like, okay, cool.

And next time she knocked and as soon as she walked past, I came out, got into the bathroom, took out the three metal bars, took the bricks out and actually put them on the ledge inside instead of just throwing them out the window.

and jumped down on the ground and basically then you know foothold for Amanda to put her foot in and you know boosted her up to the window and she was sort of contorting herself and twisting and trying to get out and it felt like minutes it was probably seconds and she turned around she's like I can't fit

said what do you mean she's like you need to take out another bar like it's it's and i was just like get out get out i don't care how you get out and she's like seriously i can't fit and then the realization of well if she can't fit this i'm bigger than her like there's no way i'm getting out of there um and i said get down and she jumped down and she's like what what are you gonna do and i was like i'll take your bag back to my room

just go back to the bathroom and I'll work it out.