Omg, the mother-in-law so true. Our horror stories came from the neighbor, a young indigenous man whos mother was very involved in building the house, and I think managing the two floors he rented out. She was awful, and harrassed us. His wife also was missing a few screws and came screaming at us a few times. He was relatively nice to us and tried hard to have "rational" discussions about how he wanted to change our behavior.
Sorry, I forgot one thing, split air-conditioned with "inverters" that also could heat. This was super handy, as we didn't need to keep heaters and were cosy in the winter.
I find the expats that find themselves in the villages also perfectly willing to participate in some illegal parking as they please if it suits them.