Might want to read "A House in the Sky" by Amanda Lindhout as well. Author is from a town very close to where I live and was kidnapped when doing journalism in Somalia.

SS

"To be glad of life because it gives you a chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars. To be satisfied with your possessions but not content with yourself until you have made the best of them."
-Henry Van Dyke