“Friendships that don’t fit my life anymore have faded away, and new ones have come in.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“You have a responsibility to move your dreams forward, no matter what.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“The countries with the greatest problems have the kindest people.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Sometimes it’s nice for people not to know anything about me.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“The road to recovery will not always be easy, but I will take it one day at a time, focusing on the moments I’ve dreamed about for so long.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Somalia is an important story in the world, and it needed to be told.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“When you see a 14-year-old boy who has never known what peace looks like for a day in his life, there’s part of you as a human being that feels some degree, you can say, compassion for the fact that these boys have known war, famine, violence and death from the day they were born.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I went through an extremely trying ordeal, but I never forgot the world outside was a beautiful place.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“My faith in human decency was sorely tested at times during my captivity; however, after my release, I am humbly reminded that mankind is inherently good by the tremendous efforts and support of fellow Canadians.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“It’s difficult to put into words what freedom feels like. You only know what freedom feels like if you know what it feels like to not be free.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Contemplating Christmas when you are isolated and far from home brings its own unique pain.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“With awareness come responsibility and choice.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“For a while, the world for me was like a set of monkey bars. I swung from one place to the next, sometimes backward, sometimes forward, capitalizing on my own momentum, knowing that at some point my arms… would give out, and I’d fall to the ground.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Every day I have many choices to make about who I want to be.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I never felt an obligation to say every single terrible thing that happened to me.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I think that I find a lot of my healing out in the world.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“After being in captivity for so long, I can’t begin to describe how wonderful it feels to be home in Canada.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I think it’s the human spirit inside of all of us that has an enormous capacity to survive.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Sometimes, you have to make the choice to forgive 10 times a day when you have these pockets of anger come up. That’s a lot of work, but to me it’s worthwhile.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Going into Somalia, I didn’t anticipate how many people’s lives would be affected by it. In hindsight, I certainly wish I had taken more time to think about that, but I can’t change it.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I used my captors’ names every chance I had. It was intentional, a way of reminding them that I saw them, of pegging them, of making them see me in return.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Maintaining my dignity is so important for me.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Many, including the Canadian and U.S. governments, try to provide family support while also maintaining a hard line about further fuelling terrorism and hostage-taking through ransom payments … Still, try telling that to a mother, or a father, or a husband or wife caught in the powerless agony of standing by.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Forgiving is not an easy thing to do.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“It was a slow understanding that my kidnappers really are a product of their environment.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“What happened to me in Somalia doesn’t define me.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I don’t think I’m unusual in that, in my 20s, like many people, I felt invincible.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“The book is called ‘A House in the Sky’ because during the very, very darkest times, that was how I survived. I had to find a safe place to go in my mind where there was no violence being done to my body and where I could reflect on the life I had lived and the life that I still wanted to live.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Because travel has always been such a vital part of myself and so essential to who I am, I have made the decision to continue to put myself back out into the world. And that’s not an easy decision to make.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I know firsthand how critical support systems are.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“My confidence came from the way I grew up, and I’m grateful for it.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I have a general sense of excitement about the future, and I don’t know what that looks like yet. But it will be whatever I make it.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Being in the dark, there’s a real weight to it. It’s heavy.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“It was a slow understanding that the lack of education in a country like Somalia creates these huge social problems.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“The same men who are placing all these outrageous restrictions on women’s freedoms in southern Somalia – that type of mentality – that’s what I had to deal with in captivity.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I must try desperately to absorb all information I can about the Middle East. I want to excel. I want to speak articulately about the politics of the Middle East and its religion.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I don’t only long for the thrill of being in the middle of a war, I must understand it; I must make other people understand.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I’m not afraid of IED’s, bullets, mortars.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“What a woman is taught, she shares with her family.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Hamdi Ulukaya and Chobani have made the decision to feed 250,000 victims of the Somali famine. Their compassion speaks for itself, and is a shining example of how the business community can have an enormous positive impact on the world.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“The greatest gift you have been given is the gift of your imagination – what do you dream of wanting to do?”
― Amanda Lindhout
“The big-time journalists generally had kidnapping insurance through their news organizations. Usually, it would pay for a crisis response company to help negotiate for a hostage’s release. Freelancers most often had none.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“After spending 460 days as a hostage, I did emerge a fundamentally changed person. But I think, like everyone does as they grow older and probably wiser, I can look back at my earlier life – my history, my mistakes, the joy I felt as a young woman traveling the world – with some objectivity and even some humor.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I made a vow to myself while I was a hostage that if I were lucky enough to live and to get out of Somalia, I would do something meaningful with my life – and specifically something that would be meaningful in the country where I’d lost my freedom.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“War dehumanizes everyone.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“My captors were definitely aware that what they were doing was wrong. It came out in small ways – occasionally through a show of guilt or compassion. One of the boys bought me a gift. Another used to sneak me acetaminophen tablets.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Accompanied by an Australian photographer named Nigel Brennan, I’d gone to Somalia to work as a freelance journalist, on a trip that was meant to last only ten days.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Christmas was the one time of year when my brothers surfaced at home, when my parents and grandparents congregated to eat my mother’s roast turkey.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I would like to especially acknowledge my home community of Calgary, and the people of central Alberta who made my dream of freedom a reality.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I must thank my good friend Nigel Brennan. His strength of character in the midst of extreme hardship inspired me during the darkest days. Despite our separation, he always managed to find small ways to remind me that there are gentlemen in the world, even when I was surrounded by just the opposite.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I am so proud to be a Canadian.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Women in Somalia face almost unimaginable oppression.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I’m afraid of the dark, but I choose to sleep in the dark. I can fall right to sleep with the lights on. But I want to be someone who can sleep in the dark, so that’s the choice that I make.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I’m afraid of elevators, because they are an enclosed space, but I get in.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Getting on a plane is hard for me, but I do it, because travel is vital to me.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“A little goes a long way in Somalia: $5 will feed a person there for about two weeks.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Somalia is very dangerous, and no one knows that better than I.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“Hillary Clinton has a strong and powerful voice regarding ending violence against women and girls.”
― Amanda Lindhout
“I have watched lives change. I have seen women gain confidence.”
― Amanda Lindhout
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