At Sa'Sa time went very slowly with so little to do, we would volunteer for any duty to break the monotony. I remember even in the first few weeks at the post, rather than sit around, I would go out and see if I could find somebody to practice my Arabic with.

On one occasion I spied an Arab walking a donkey with a sack on his back coming from the direction of Lebanon. I stopped him and in my best Arabic asked his name and where he was going, as in all cases when trying ones hand at a foreign language, asking the questions is easy, understanding the answers is the hard part. So far I was on safe ground I did not really care who he was or where he was going. The answer to my next question, what was in the sack on the donkey's back, got my attention fast, 'Hashish' he replied. O'boy only a few weeks on the job and I catch one of the drug smugglers they told us about at Sarona!

I demanded he open the bag and much to my annoyance discovered it was only ordinary grass, nothing at all like the samples of the drug we had been shown. I angrily told him to go in a mixture of languages, some not in Arabic, some not too polite and with a puzzled look he moved on at a rapid pace.

As I did not feel like exposing my humiliation at being tricked, it was sometime later before I learned, the Arabic word for ordinary grass is hashish, the name of the drug is hashish-hashish. No wonder the poor citizen was surprised at the behavior of the overly excited nut in police uniform.