Sunday, May 11, 2008

valley views

My no frills, point-and-shoot camera can hold 11 pictures in it's memory at its best resolution, so each time I take a walk, I am limiteds to 11 pictures. It's so frustrating. So here are the 8 best for today. On the other side of that hill is Jerusalem.
I would love to be able to look at this view every day. But it is a heck of a walk up the hill. Until we get a car, I will stick to living in the ugly, built up valley where the public transportation is.
This house is all tumbled down on one side, but the other side is newer, and lived in. I guess they can't bare to tear down the house their grandfathers built.I love the rock walls and the old trees.
A few last wildflowers bloomed along this wall.I am seriously too tired to think of any more captions....
and I think I went too far with the sharpening on this next one. It looks weird somehow, doesn't it?Good night, and Happy (American) Mothers day to my Mom and all the other mothers out there!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Salamaleikum rahmatullah wa barakatuh dear sister,

many thanks for your amusing Blog.

I have discovered the Blog the last week and have perused him today from the first entry up to the last. You have to write thus a nice kind, full feeling, humor and faith SubhanAllah.
I am a German Muslima and since ten years married to a Palestinian. My husband comes from Jenin and insha'Allah we will live in close future also there.

While reading your words I often had to laugh, cry and swallow sometimes also hard.
If one is so far from "home" like us(We live in Germany, although we already want to return for a long time) is often the everyday experiences, the small wild flowers at the street edge etc what is missing, and thus I enjoy it very much with how much esteem you look at them and describe them.

Your pictures of all flowers and especially from waraq dawali release big longing in me. The longing after Jenin, after our family and our friends is there always, but however when I look at your pictures, I have the feeling to smell Palestine, to be able to touch and feel and taste... I thank you sincerely for it. Thank you for allowing us to participate in your life, because this gives me hope that also I can live one day in Palestine and bring up my two boys.

I would like to apologise for this long comment. But you have touched me internally and I have the feeling that I would like to get to know you really with pleasure. Maybe you allow me in the future to ask a few questions which move me concerning my migration to Palestina via email.

Dear sister, Allâh may recompense you for your efforts richly and allow you to be always contented, he may bless you and your family always and hold his hands protecting over You and all the people of palestine.

Salaam, Sebaha

alajnabiya said...

Thank you for your long comment! It made my day. Please, ask anything you want, but be patient with me, because I sometimes take a while to get around to things! InshaAllah we will meet one day.

Anonymous said...

Dear Carol, many thanks for your quick answer. Also I would be glad very much if we could meet once in the "real life"... a visit in the Star's and Buck's cafe in Ramallah I would find, for example, also very nicely ;-).
Up to a personal meeting I will visit you quite regularly on the Internet.
Don't bother because of a response may take a while, there are always things that keep us busy
and one of the things I should get a little training in is patience...:-)
Affectionately yours and Salaam, Sebaha

alajnabiya said...

Well if you want to move to Palestine, patience is the most important thing you can bring!

Umm Ibrahim said...

Assalaamu alaikum,

Love the photos - they really do give the flavour of Palestine. Really as I remember some parts that I visited. :)

Umm Ibrahim

alajnabiya said...

Thank you, Umm Ibrahim.

Unknown said...

I was watching a program on Al Jazeera English about Palestine. I was a little surprised to see that the villages that were taken over so many years ago are still empty and just rubble. I was under the impression that the homes and villages taken over were taken to house Jewish families, etc. I suppose that was an uneducated guess or based on the assumption that all the immigrants brought from Russia, Poland, Germany needed housing. Hmmm. Something new to ponder. MashAllah there are some lovely and sad programming going on these days.

alajnabiya said...

Nicole, there were places where Palestinian homes were given to Jews to live in, especially in towns and cities. But there were also villages that were completely destroyed or any a few structures were left standing. Many times these were built over, and sometimes the areas were made in to parks and nature preserves. Please check out Palestine Remembered to read about many of the destroyed villages. The section Witness The Destruction Of 'Imwas has before and after pictures of one such village that is now in "Canada Park." Growing up, I remember groups raising money to "plant trees in Israel." I wondered at the time why the country was so in need of trees. It seems some of them were used to try and cover up the existence of ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages.