Ich habe kein Geld

Yesterday, on Friday the 8th, a small team of us travelled to Point Pedro, in the very north of the country. There has been a hospital here that has been managed by MSF since 1986. They are in the process of gradually handing the hospital over to the Ministry of Health (MOH.) That is likely to occur in August. We were welcomed to the MSF facilities with open arms and a great meal. We were here to look over the operating theater, and their post-op wards, to get some good ideas for the facilities in Mullaitivu. To help celebrate, a couple of us went to buy some gin. It was a good night for gin and tonics. While shopping at the local hooch store, we found some gin, but no tonic. We did find a lime, club soda and 7Up at an adjacent little shop. While standing there admiring the shop, a local Tamil man came up to me and asked, 'Sprechen Sie Deutsch?' Boy, was that a surprise. I must really look like a teutonic white person. The only thing that would have been more surprising would have been the same question, except in Norwegian. Anyway, I was thrilled to understand a language coming from a Tamil, so I answered in my best Hochdeutsch, 'Ja, Ich kann Deutsch sprechen.' It turns out that he was a multilingual beggar, and kept asking for money, stating that he has none. 'Ich habe kein Geld.' The driver from MSF quickly hustled me away before I was tempted to give over a few rupees, the whole time telling this man to leave us be. I can only imagine that there was some rich Germans in the area some time in the past. They must have been white, and looked like me.