North to Paradise Quotes

“Given all the hardship I’ve experienced, it would be easy to think that the world is full of bad people, but I prefer to think that most people are good. It’s just that the good people make less noise.”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“I tried not to lose hope and remembered a popular mantra from my country: “Forward ever, backward never.”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“If you don’t know something exists, you can’t want it.”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“Once, I went on holiday with a girlfriend, and it was really hard because I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with myself. Why were we wasting time like that? I need food, I need clothes, but I don’t need vacation. I didn’t understand that I had the right to take time off work, and to be honest, I still don’t totally get the point of doing nothing on purpose.”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“One of the saddest things I learned on my journey is that in this life, no one gives you anything for free.”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“Sometimes, the smallest detail in the present can determine your entire future.”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“Fitting in with my new family was easy. It felt like they were an incomplete puzzle and I was the missing piece”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“sat, alone, in the middle of the desert. Slowly, we started”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“lived with my extended family—there were twenty of us—in a big house with a central courtyard we used for meetings and household tasks, like preparing food or hanging up laundry to dry. Parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles, we shared a strong bond. In my land, family is sacred, and elders are the most important”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“That day I learned that we’re all afraid of the unknown.”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“of bad people, but I prefer to think that most people are good. It’s just that the good people make less noise.”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“Children are just work mules; nobody pays much attention to them. Elders are the wisest because they have lived the longest. Since knowledge is hard to come by, the best way to learn something is to ask an elder.”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“I need food, I need clothes, but I don’t need vacation. I didn’t understand that I had the right to take time off work, and to be honest, I still don’t totally get the point of doing nothing on purpose.”
― Ousman Umar, North to Paradise

“El concepto de tiempo dentro de la cabeza de una persona analfabeta es completamente diferente al de una persona culta. Si me preguntabas qué iba a pasar al cabo de cinco años no sabía preverlo. No me importaba el largo plazo. Estaba acostumbrado a preocuparme por comer ese día y saber si habría algo de comer al siguiente. En Ghana los autobuses parten solo cuando están llenos, no hay prisa, la gente espera con paciencia hasta que se ocupen todos los asientos. No pueden hacerse muchos planes.”
― Ousman Umar, Viaje al país de los blancos