Common rules of the road for Peru:

• Don’t be surprised to find a chicken foot, claws and all, floating in your soup
• Kissing cheeks is a common form of greeting, not romanticism.
• It’s not unusual for a flat-out downpour to start with no rain clouds in sight
• The term “gringo” (your new name) isn’t necessarily insulting. It is simply used to describe you generically, especially if you’re fair skinned.
• Odd occurrences with toilets: the water swirls backwards
• Most toilets don’t have seats, just bowls.
• Get to know nationwide rule of thumb: TP doesn’t ever go in a toilet. For those who forget, it’s a sure-fire way to clog a sewer system.
• Want to jump in the shower? There’s only one temperature: cold.
• Roadways that don’t seem to have any order or traffic control and it’s not unlikely to find yourself face to face with a vehicle hurtling towards you, in YOUR lane. Extremely offensive driving is the rule.
• An insanely cheap public transportation system, but be prepared to pack in taxis and buses like sardines unless you dish out the extra cash for private motokar transport.
• Honking has many meanings-warning, greeting, anger-but no one pays it much mind. It is far too common. Drivers honk at dogs, potholes, pedestrians, and other vehicles with alarming frequency.
• Vehicle inspection seems a thing of the imagination and most vehicles would never pass if it were instated.
• Routine animal cruelty. Animals aren’t normally valued very highly.
• Almost all dogs and even cats have mange.
• Kids with big bellies aren’t overfed, they’re popping with big worms.
• Vendors are certain you will buy something, and your “NO” most certainly means “I’d love to take a look.”
• Sorting big crunchy bugs out of rice is a common occurrence, until you decide to just eat ’em.
• Announcing you for special music in church without any pre-notice isn’t considered a problem.
• You can bargain for just about everything.
• Customer service is non-existent
• Washing machines are portable, two-part, and have ten fingers. They are multifunctional and depending on quality, they determine how clean your clothes will turn out.
• TP is personally supplied if you go to public places.
• Hugging a two-year old with all her teeth rotted out isn’t just sad, it’s commonplace.
• Electricity is a luxury. Apart from candles and headlamps, stars might be your only reliable light after sundown.
• Men urinating on city walls and street corners is normal. Not quite so for women.
• Everything is reusable. Your trash is someone else’s treasure.
• Unheard of diseases like malaria and tuberculosis kill real people.
• The diarrhea runs is literal, and at least a one-time experience every volunteer will have.
• Animal entrails, pig heads, cow hooves, and gooey intestines are but a few of the delicacies found on bloody meat-tables in market. Active chopping and dismembering of carcasses goes on in the midst of it all.
• Flat roofs with rebar jutting out into the sky makes it look like a building is unfinished. It’s just class.
• Hospitals are all pay-before-you-receive systems. If you don’t have the cash, you don’t get the help.
• You will forever be a target to the piranha crowd aka those who are looking for a likely victim to steal from.
• The woman’s most common change purse is her bra.
• Sitting through an entire church service when you understand three words will improve.
• Learn basic rules: when it breaks, fix it (never pitch it). If you don’t have it, invent it.
• Life isn’t fair: don’t get used to it. Do something about it.
• When you are pushed to your limits, change your limits.