Today I noticed that one of the guys who works at the front desk had a bandage on his arm, and I asked if he was okay. He told me that he was fine, but then the story of how it happened.
Apparently, he was working in the pharmacy several days ago when a man who is not a regular customer came in and selected a few things to purchase.
When the customer gave him money to pay for it, he noticed that the bill didn't "feel right" and asked the customer about it. The customer put on a big show of being offended, saying that he couldn't believe what he was being accused of, especially since it was RAMADAN. He would NEVER cheat somebody during Ramadan (this, of course, raises some questions of its own...). Edna's employee said, yes, yes of course, and accepted the bill despite some misgivings.
But when he took it to the bank to deposit the next day, his suspicions were confirmed--it was counterfeit, and the bank refused to take it, of course. Everyone here was rightly frustrated by this, but there was little they could do. But then, yesterday, this man had the guts/was stupid enough to show up at the pharmacy AGAIN, this time with a friend.
As soon as the Edna's employee saw his face, he recognized it. The counterfeiter saw the expression on his face and bolted with his friend, and the pharmacists and several others went after the them. The friend escaped, but they cornered the original counterfeit bearer and hauled him off to the nearby police station. It was at some point in this scuffle that his arm got hurt.
My questions about what would happen to the counterfeiter now were largely evaded, but I gather that it doesn't look good for him. Somaliland is so desperate to distance itself from Somalia that I think things like this are taken even more seriously than they might be otherwise. But it is serious business: a couple of years ago in Somalia there were violent riots in which several were killed after vast quantities of counterfeited money in the economy sent inflation soaring, doubling food prices.
Interestingly, counterfeiting is also getting to the Somali pirates. For example, in 2008 much of the $1.2 million ransom for the luxury French yacht Le Ponant turned out to be counterfeited. Many of the pirates now carry the machines banks use to detect counterfeited bills onto ships and run their ransom money through them. They won't take $100 bills printed before 1996, because these are easier to counterfeit, or any very recent ones (easier to trace). This money is no joke for Somalia's destitute economy: $50 million in 2008 alone, though as this article points out, that's less than half of Christiano Ronaldo's transfer fee to Real Madrid.
On an entirely different note, the sunset tonight was one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.
The bottom one is Edna's lovely garden. All were taken from the roof of the hospital.
I also learned how to give henna pedicures, which virtually all women here have, and which somehow I imagine will come in useful at the most unlikely time. Can't possibly imagine what it will be, though.
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