Hello Bebie!!! Well it is already passed the holiday season and I am finally finding more moments to write to you. I hope that all is fine with you, your family and friends. How is my little buddy Archie? Is he growing big and strong? How was your Christmas and New Year Holiday? I am sorry for not having written to you sooner but as you might imagine my work and duty schedule has kept me quite busy. I did receive your nice Christmas card and I want to thank you very much for remembering me. It is so nice to hear from you all the way from Magellanes. I have been watching the video over and over of my trip there and I have finally taken the photoes down to the store to get developed. We'll see in a few days how they turn out. I want to wish you and everyone there the best of this new year and I certainly hope the the storm did not do too much damage in your cute little town. Unfortunatley I did not hear about the storm too much because the news here has been dominated by events in the Middle East and the U.S.'s involvment there. AS you might expect this is a very big event in U.S. history. Many factors are involved with this Middle East Crisis and there are depates every day as to how we as a nation are to proceed with events happening there. It is clear in the minds of most world leaders that, like it or not, countries around the globe are on the verge of a new world order. And what does that mean? Well certainly with the interdependence of all nations on one another, the speed of comunication via satelite, the shrunken distances as a result of air travel, and the complexity of security within any given national border lead us all along a path necessating a common system of interrelating that supersedes many previous cultural and legal systems. An industry with lcoal clientel may find it's very existence keenly dependend on the productivity of a competive industry several thousand miles away. For example a computer industry in the United States and the same such in Taiwan may find they are vying for the same customers in New York as well as Burma. A drug smuggler in Panama may find ( as in Noriega's case ) that he is held on trial in another country (as he is in the U.S.) for actions in his own country. The political settling of two countries as the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. has had a direct effect on the outcome of proceedures in the Middle East. Certainly there would never have been such an overwhelming and united front of action by members of the United Nations had there not been a toning down of what was considered a communist threat by the U.S.S.R. And as the controversy of U.S. bases in the Phillipines becomes a greater issue in your country will the Philippines be able to be inwardly strengthened without an active involvment in international economics? Even the smallest of countries such as Shi Lanca depend on exports and imports with other nations for there very survival. All of us as individual nations have been exposed to modern potentials of "progress" that raise our expextations far beyond those of our ancestors. Most nations expect and desire very similar conditions now with respect to education,health and standards of living. We will not be able to retain the descreet cultural,and possibly even language and religeous, uniqueness that our ancestors enjoyed ( or bemoaned ) when our borders have,in so many ways, become so close.So it is a very interesting world indeed. And I cannot deny the fact that in the long run these changes effect us all in a personal way eventually. Well by the time you receive this letter the holiday season will have already passed. And I think that it is good that I have waited until this time to write this letter. The reason is because I beleive this letter will bring some sadness to your heart and I did not want you to receive this news during a time of celebration. But now I must tell you Bebie that a woman has entered my life with whom I have become quite involved. She is a local gal and we share much in common. Out of respect for you and her I feel it is best you let you know this at this time. I want to thank you whole heartedely for your wonderful hospitality while I was visiting in your home. And I also want to say that it has been a true pleasure to come to know you Bebie through our letters and time together. And yet I guess it is true what they say that all good things must one day come to an end. Sharing our time together trough letters and meeting has certainly been a very fine time in my life and I want to let you know that I will always remember you with warm thoughts. I wish you the very best of luck in all your endeavors Bebie. And I am quite sure that one day soon you will meet a very fine man with whom you will raise a warm a loving family. And that man will be lucky indeed to have you as his loving wife. Take care Bebie. And may God bless you and your family each and every day. Your friend in Crockett California. Donald.  Donald.