Friday, December 07, 2007

Nechirvan on Nechirvan Street

Picture from www.Chris-Kutschera.com

"Who is this HOT guy?" you (or someone somewhere) might ask.
He is the reason I yelled at a beret-wearing AK47-toting guard yesterday. I had a very important meeting with some officials set for 10:00am and of course at 9:50 and a 10-15 minute taxi ride from my destination, I ran into difficulties. I stepped out from the drive to my apartment onto the main street when some of these camoflaged guards used go-away doggy finger gestures to tell me to get out of the street and back into the drive. I stepped back and impatiently shifted from foot to foot waiting for some sign that I could go out and catch my taxi. In the meantime, traffic kept accumulating in the drive from the apartment, of course every white SUV filled with men all staring at me with amusement and those looks that might indicate that they have never before in their lives seen a woman! One of them seemed so intent on talking to me that I stepped closer to his car and he informed me that traffic had been stopped so that Nechirvan Barzani (the guy in the photo and prime minister of Kurdistan) could pass. Shortly after an entourage of BLACK (not the usual white) SUVs with tinted windows passed and I was finally allowed on my way. Nonetheless, although completely unreasonable, I was so frustrated at being stared at for nearly 10 minutes that seemed like an uncomfortable eon, I yelled at the guards for making me stand on the side of the road where I could be treated like an unwitting zoo specimen.

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