Ten Things I've Learned in 24 Hours

1. There are showers in bathrooms so scary that I will elect to stay dirty.

2. Walking through an open-air fish market in the hot afternoon sun kicks my latent vegetarianism into gear.

3. I can get a great night's sleep on sheets that would have made me cringe three weeks ago.

4. Waking up to unidentifiable insect bites around my knees doesn't give me that much pause.

5. Visiting a tobacco buying center is not remotely interesting.

6. Spending seven-plus hours sandwiched between two men in the backseat of a mini-truck will cause me to envy kids we pass on bicycles. Even the ones with 50 pounds of grain/family members/firewood, etc. balanced on their handlebars.

7. Paved roads and Hermés share something in common: Both are luxuries.

8. Third-world facial tissue could be used to strip furniture.

9. After being exposed to all manner of extreme poverty, the image I can't shake is of a young boy standing beside the road, cruelly swinging a leashed monkey upside down.

10. Sentences that I would have previously prefaced with "I would never..." are no longer applicable.