The 4 Kurdish Amigos

So went to dinner with Vamen and the manager of the shop, who was this small eccentric guy full of energy and questions. Interesting thing was that they didn't know how to eat with a knife and fork, just not something they do, it was strange that they asked me, but I was happy to oblige and teach them.
After dinner, we went to the previously mentioned Hookah lounge where we met some American soldiers that Vamen had worked with in the Army, they seemed like nice enough guys, but I could see them being the stereotypical soldier in Baghdad, full of testosterone, macho, with guns in their hands. We didn't chat for long. We played Backgammon and smoked until Vamens friends showed up.
Just as we were leaving a guy asked me to take his picture, I obliged, and he did a crazy strange dance and struck a pose. Everyone around me laughed, turns out he was the local crazy guy.

Vamens friends pulled up, in a Police truck, I got in back and away we went. I got introduced to Vamen's friends, Mohamed who works at a car parts shop, Jiad, who works in construction and is son of the SWAT leader, and Rayzan who was studying to become a military officer. All were pretty cool guys, all were so interested in Canada, and were extremely accommodating when it came to translating our conversations.

We got to the bar, which consisted of a bunch of rooms on the top of a building, so that the patrons would be unable to see each other. In such a staunchly Muslim country 15 mins from the Warzone of Iraq, this seemed like a resonable idea.
We sat down and then the closeness of violence jumped out at me.
Jiad sat down and pulled out his handgun. As if it were nothing, as if he had been carrying it around all day and it was finally safe to put it down.
Me being a Canadian and being culturally petrified by handguns had to make a comment. I told them all about guns and how they were viewed in Canada.
They were impressed with Canada and how safe it was, needing a gun is somewhat of a given for many people.
They then told me that we were going to go shooting tomorrow night, and that maybe Jiad would bring out his AK47 or maybe even one of his Dads RPGs.
The whole time at the bar was basically awesome, a bit of an eye opener in terms of immersion in the culture, and Kurdish people.
The 4 friends were amazing, they went to great lengths to ensure that I was able to get as much out of my trip in Kurdistan as I could.
For the rest of the night we played cards, they taught me some car game similar to Rummy I taught them blackjack and poker. It was strange, playing cards in the middle east you go counter clockwise, which threw me off a bit, but made sense in a strange way.
At the end of the night we agreed to meet tomorrow and they would show me the lookout point over the city.