“Real” Gazelle and “Fancied” Grasshoppers (2)
Published: 02:12 PM,Dec 07,2022 | EDITED : 05:12 PM,Dec 07,2022
We then moved to a place named 'Ajaaiz' and the gazelle full Northern Ghobra. We hunted a number of them one day, skinned them, spiced their meat with salt, and put them out in the open on water and petrol barrels placed on our vehicles. When we woke up in the morning we found nothing. Someone or something had apparently taken them away during the night.
We noticed that the English expert wasn’t satisfied with our hunting. In any case, we came back from our mission without finding any grasshoppers or even any traces of them, something that made us raise suspicions as to the main mission that the Englishman had come for.
Two weeks after we returned to Bibid, Maj. Cooper told me that Sultan Said intended to improve the police force, and to that purpose, a number of army personnel were to be shifted. He asked if I liked to join the police and gave me some time to think it over.
I did think it over, and concluded that those injured before me either had ended up in a rations department or returned to their hometowns. (There was no pension during that time). Therefore, I agreed, saying to myself, 'Let me try my luck in another place and rely on God'.
It was an all important step in my life. It is, to be sure, difficult for a warrior engaged in a battlefield to surrender his weapon. But on my firm belief that life was itself a war, I felt I had only one choice: to remain a warrior, albeit in a different form, in a different shape.
I, then a sergeant, told Maj. Cooper about my decision. Acting upon his guidance, I prepared myself and went to the Oman Jondramat in Wadi Arsh in A’Seeb. There I reported to Maj. William Hockett upon my arrival.
From Wadi Arsh started an altogether different story.
We noticed that the English expert wasn’t satisfied with our hunting. In any case, we came back from our mission without finding any grasshoppers or even any traces of them, something that made us raise suspicions as to the main mission that the Englishman had come for.
Two weeks after we returned to Bibid, Maj. Cooper told me that Sultan Said intended to improve the police force, and to that purpose, a number of army personnel were to be shifted. He asked if I liked to join the police and gave me some time to think it over.
I did think it over, and concluded that those injured before me either had ended up in a rations department or returned to their hometowns. (There was no pension during that time). Therefore, I agreed, saying to myself, 'Let me try my luck in another place and rely on God'.
It was an all important step in my life. It is, to be sure, difficult for a warrior engaged in a battlefield to surrender his weapon. But on my firm belief that life was itself a war, I felt I had only one choice: to remain a warrior, albeit in a different form, in a different shape.
I, then a sergeant, told Maj. Cooper about my decision. Acting upon his guidance, I prepared myself and went to the Oman Jondramat in Wadi Arsh in A’Seeb. There I reported to Maj. William Hockett upon my arrival.
From Wadi Arsh started an altogether different story.