Just a few notes

Here are a few things I've learned from my time here thus far:

Use your right hand when gesturing in any way or touching someone. The idea behind this is that you use your left hand for less-than-sanitary actions and thus it is an insult to use this hand with others.

Bring toilet paper with you everywhere. It will surprise you how few places actually have it.

Pretty much everything tastes the same here. It's not necessarily bad tasting, but it's not great either. Plus, I miss cheese with a passion.

Bucket showers are amazing. Basically, you get a big bucket of water and use a small bucket to toss the water over you. It's room temperature (at the warmest) and very refreshing.

Do not dare order a "mini" beer unless you want a look of disgust from the waiter. A "mini" is the typical size back in the states. The normal size here is at least twice that size, so when I tell stories about feeling drunk off one or two beers, it's because they're massive, not because I'm a total lightweight (though that's a little true too).

There are not nearly as many mosquitos as the U.S. public health system would like you to think. I've only been bitten a handful of times thus far.

When some one says anything like "Just a second, or it'll just be a minute, or very soon" don't believe them. I've now experienced a half dozen situations where I was told "Any minute now," only to wait for hours. Time is fluid here.

Being clean isn't all that important and big bugs aren't that scary. When you're worried about falling into the open sewer system full of human feces and who-knows-what-else, that spider the size of my head isn't nearly as frightening. Also, Purell should be sold by the liter here.

The only thing you need to know to get somewhere - anywhere, really - in this country is the name of where you are going. The people here are incredibly helpful. Even if you have to ask eight people, eventually, someone will make sure you get to the right place. Just today, someone we met in a bar Friday night saw us again in town and got us a taxi to the bus station and stayed with us until we got on the bus.