I wake up early and I put on my clothes quietly.

It’s after dawn, and the sky is tinted a soft orange. The sun is not yet fully ablaze and there is a cool breeze. I wonder if it will stay that way, and I hope it will, because waiting in the breadline for hours with the sun overhead gives me a headache.

I put on my shoes and hear my mother telling me to hurry up, that we have a long line awaiting us.

The walk to Doha Bakery in Khan Younis takes about 10 minutes. Before the war, I would walk to university and sometimes near the sea, and I enjoyed these walks. But the walk to the breadline, to join an immense crowd of people pleading for loaves of bread – this is not the same kind of walk.