Puerto Maldonado at Last!

Corey's handwritten letter to everyone dated 1/27/2007 Welcome to the Land of Motorcycles. By that, i mean the town of Puerto Maldonado, Peru, home to about 150 K people, at least half of which evidently own a motorcycle. You can ride any of them as a taxi, to anywhere in town for one sol, about US $0.30. They do have a law here that no more than two people can ride a motorcycle at a time, which didn't apply back in Ecuador. Once i saw 6 or 7 people on one motorcycle in Quito, mostly children! Dead serious! No pun intended. Peru has that beat with the minivan service acting as buses here in Puerto Maldonado. Two days ago i was one of 24 people in the minivan!
I left Ecuador, miraculously forgetting nothing, sadly saying goodbye to several people i now miss. The old folks at the church in Pesillo gave me parting gifts such as rotten onions, dried beans, and various grains of which, i was told were for baking bread. Though i had no use for any of the gifts, they were as the widow's two mites, all the people had to give, and were thus, gold to me.
Once in Peru, i did get to spend an afternoon with Lorne James, longtime friend from Snowbird and fellow missionary here in Peru. We met up in the capitol, Lima, and he was a blessing to me.
Now, as you know i'm in Puerto Maldonado in training. Currently we are improving our Spanish. By "we" i mean missionaries including Jeff Hill, a texan; Edgar; Arewinda; Alex; Lucio; and Marilin, all of whom are indigenous believers and speak some Spanish, but not too well; and myself. We are studying the book of Genesis and having various hands-on classes such as music lessons, taught by Bobby Lane; and wood working, taught by Jodi, another Xtremer.
Prayer Requests:
*Patience in classes, getting to know new faces, waiting to be sent out to unreached communities, aggravating rules, and blood sucking insects (which the Lord saw fit to put 100 times as many mosquitoes as there are people in this town in His infinite, unhuman wisdom.)
*Health in the spiritual and physical sense. I predict my doctrines about church, the Body of Christ, and other areas may greatly change for the better as i'm shown Scripture i'd never taken notice of before in the past.
*Wise decision making.
PS: If you want to reply to me (corey), do so at my snail mail address and i will reply to each one, via snail mail. That address is corey reid pendergrass
Apartado 111
Puerto Maldonado, Peru