Hello? Is anyone out there?

I have been thinking of starting a blog for ages. I think I have had a blog in my head all my life. I am always looking around me, thinking how I would describe things around me , how I would photograph them, but never doing it. All plans and no follow through. InshaAllah, maybe I will follow through this time.

Of course I wonder why anyone would want to read the wanderings of my mind. Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe just doing it is what counts. Maybe just the act of trying to climb out of my shell, over the walls that separate me from other people is what I need.

There are times when I think that other people would have been interested in my stories. I should have started blogging when things were "interesting" here; on the days when I stood on my roof watching Israeli helicopters fire rockets into Ramallah, or when my kids and I got tear gassed while we were out shopping for shoes, or when APCs (anti personel carriers, like tanks without the big gun on top) used to drive past our house. InshaAllah, I hope things won't become that kind of "interesting" again anytime soon. But now this day to day struggle goes on in another way. The area where we live is being completely surrounded by the wall. "The Wall." There is only one way out, into the rest of the West Bank, through a checkpoint. Our house used to be near a main thoughfare, but now we are near the end of the road. All the shops are closing, because there is no traffic anymore. Sometimes kids play in what used to be a busy street. No one wants to visit any more because it is such a hassle to get here.

And I go on the internet, to try and reassure my self that somewhere out there, some people are still living "normal" lives.

(AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)