Dissection

Today was my first dissection in another country. I have done many in the past, but never had the troubles like here.

First, the school has barely any supplies. I found a few scissors, one or two rustly scalpels and that is it. I tried looking for scalpels but what the hell is scalpel in Indonesian? So, I ended up at a 'Staples' type place and bought some cheap exacto knives. Try cutting through a heart with that!
There were no dissecting trays, either. So, I had to buy some plastic plates for students to cut on. That doesn't seem so funny until you realize that hearts we were using were beef hearts and were about the size of your head.

In the past, when I have done the heart dissection I would typically use pig hearts. They are smaller and a more 'human sized'. But, try finding pig hearts in a Muslim country (pigs have no necks). Good luck. So, beef hearts it is.

So, the students, I don't think' have ever performed a dissection but they were quite excited. Maybe it was me in my lab coat, but needless to say they were giddy. Then, out of an ice-packed Coleman cooler I pulled out a heart. Again, it was about the size of my head, covered in fat and I asked the butcher to leave on as much 'goodness' as possible.

Now, I don't know how hard it is to get some hearts in these parts. I would assume many of them get sold as food. But, I think some of these hearts had been sitting around for a while. The smell was unbelievable. Some hearts had a greenish tinge to them and smelled like a dogs ass (before you reply, the answer is yes).

I did my dissection at about 8:30 this morning and as I write this at 1:30 they are still sitting in the Coleman cooler that is not as ice-packed as it should be.