Canadian humanitarian, social activist and writer Amanda Lindhout recently spoke at the CPA conference in Vancouver, BC, where she recounted in honest detail her unimaginable story of being taken hostage in Somalia for over 400 days.
During her moving and powerful talk, Lindhout described in vivid detail what it felt like to lose her freedom, and told stories of unthinkable pain and suffering, both emotional, physical, and even sexual. However, it was through these experiences of weakness and unprecedented vulnerability that Lindhout found strength. More than that her experiences allowed her to gain new perspectives, such as a how "hurt people hurt people", the concept of which sprouted seeds of compassion for her captors. Even in the darkest moments, Lindhout still believed in human goodness and grace.
Following her release, Lindhout returned to Canada where she experiences ongoing battles with anger and PTSD. However, she is an inspiration to us all as she continues to demonstrate resiliency and has turned her "compassion into action" through founding the Global Enrichment Foundation which "empowers, educates and provides aid in the very country where she lost her freedom".
You can learn more about Lindhout, by checking out her website http://amandalindhout.com/ or by reading her memoir A House In The Sky.
"The dramatic and redemptive memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world’s most beautiful and remote places, its most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity—an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, and grace."
Recommended For:
Everyone, including travelers and journalists, and anyone looking to be inspired or reminded of their inner resiliency
During her moving and powerful talk, Lindhout described in vivid detail what it felt like to lose her freedom, and told stories of unthinkable pain and suffering, both emotional, physical, and even sexual. However, it was through these experiences of weakness and unprecedented vulnerability that Lindhout found strength. More than that her experiences allowed her to gain new perspectives, such as a how "hurt people hurt people", the concept of which sprouted seeds of compassion for her captors. Even in the darkest moments, Lindhout still believed in human goodness and grace.
Following her release, Lindhout returned to Canada where she experiences ongoing battles with anger and PTSD. However, she is an inspiration to us all as she continues to demonstrate resiliency and has turned her "compassion into action" through founding the Global Enrichment Foundation which "empowers, educates and provides aid in the very country where she lost her freedom".
You can learn more about Lindhout, by checking out her website http://amandalindhout.com/ or by reading her memoir A House In The Sky.
"The dramatic and redemptive memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world’s most beautiful and remote places, its most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity—an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, and grace."
Recommended For:
Everyone, including travelers and journalists, and anyone looking to be inspired or reminded of their inner resiliency
Overview
As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress in Calgary, Alberta, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia—“the most dangerous place on earth.” On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road.
Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic, receives “wife lessons” from one of her captors, and risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert, she survives on memory—every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity—and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark, being tortured.
Vivid and suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman and her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity (www.goodreads.com).
Reviews:
As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress in Calgary, Alberta, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia—“the most dangerous place on earth.” On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road.
Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic, receives “wife lessons” from one of her captors, and risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert, she survives on memory—every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity—and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark, being tortured.
Vivid and suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman and her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity (www.goodreads.com).
Reviews:
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