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.

A little goes a long way in Somalia: $5 will feed a person there for about two weeks.

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.

We all waited on an afterlife. Only I planned to be alive for mine.

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.

I think it's the human spirit inside of all of us that has an enormous capacity to survive.

Getting on a plane is hard for me, but I do it, because travel is vital to me.