The Differences

I have been to an assortment of hospitals in Canada, most of those, visiting friends.  None that I can remember in the States.

I went for a walk in Puno Peru, and noticed something as I was walking past the hospital there.  It was not a tall place, but sprawled out encompassing an entire block, with two sides walled in completely.

Being walled in was completely normal, but it was the businesses across from those walls that caught my eye.  In Canada, I would expect a few clinics, a pharmacy, a junk food place and one or two small cafes.  In Puno, there were a few tiendas, a pharmacy and four funeral homes.

I both giggled and paused for thought.  Giggled at the 'recommendation' of having that many funeral homes that close to a hospital.

But then I thought, where else would you group them together?  Why is it in Canada, that the funeral home is never within view of a hospital?  What is it about the reality of death, and especially death in a hospital that makes it so abhorrent that we cannot have a funeral home near to a hospital?

The more I thought about it, the more practical the attitude in Peru seemed, but at the same time, I cannot see it catching on in North America.

Just one more of the differences between cultures.