Ah, this reminds me of a story that would be appropriate at this time.
I'm in the middle of a foreign country that is having some... internal strife we shall call it. To my knowledge I'm only one of four green suiters there. On a certain day my partner and I are voluntold to go sit in the middle of no mans land for a few hours that turned into a couple days in an unarmored run of the mill Nissan Pathfinder. So on the way back to our hotel (about 90 minutes away) we come upon an intersection that we weren't real sure to go left or right. BUT WAIT!, we're in luck, there's a sentry posted at the intersection from one of the 'more friendly' of the warring factions. So we pull up to him and he's slouching there smoking. My partner was in the passenger side and roles down his window. In his best language of the country he can muster he stays "Good morning. How do you do?" at which point the guard in accent free, perfect English responds "F$#@ you American" and goes back to smoking. My partner calmly says back, "Well thank you very much", rolls up his window and we made a left turn and drove. It was the correct turn. The other took you to a mined road and a blown out bridge. Honest to God that happened just like that. We still laugh about that.
BTW, we went back the next day and at that point began a period of 27 straight days sitting in no mans land. But all that other stuff is a different story for a different time.