Anatomy lesson

WhenI walk into the Distributor store, young and eager employees rush up to help me with my purchases. They are probably children or nieces and nephews of the owner.

In this store you never take for yourself what you need from the shelves. Like most of the others in Peru, you ask for what you want and the people get it for you. I think I would find this a little annoying in the States, because I'm a pretty independent shopper, and don't like people staring at me while I'm trying to make decisions. But I'm learning to like it here. I enjoy the banter.

The Distributor is the largest store in Campo Verde, and it is about the size of a two car garage. As I wait for a young girl who is measuring up my two kilos of sugar from a brown paper sack, I am aware of some whacking sound in the back of the store.

I look, and see a man chopping up a cow carcass with an axe. He has to swing way back behind his head. There, hanging on metal hooks, I see nicely dissected specimens of the cow insides: the liver, the heart, the intestines, the tongue, the lungs.

I take a few steps closer. The heart is massive--I think could stick my whole hand in the aorta.

But they're still hacking with that axe, and I turn away.

I can't watch.