Como dizer "Para você ter uma ideia ..." em inglês

Hi there,

I was writing an email to a friend, and I´d like to tell him about some differences here in Brazil and I started my sentence with:

"Para você ter um ideia aqui ....."

I wasn´t able to translate this properly, so that I wrote "For an ideia, here ..."

I don´t know either if it´s right, but I think he got it.

My question is: Does anybody know the best way to say this in English??

Thank you