Mom and Dad,
I will be sure to tell her.  Any other news?  Will send you an update soon. All goes well.  
Macedonia surprisingly impressive; green valleys tucked in between snow-dusted mountains, neat farms and villages and not as desperately poor as I had read (at least as this all appeared from the window of the plane).  We happened to arrive at the same time Secretary of State Colin Powell; the airport was surrounded by several helicopters hovering like dragonflies; road into town lined with KFOR (from Kosovo, just 30 km away) soldiers and local police; we got delayed for 20 minutes or so as Powell's motorcade passed, reminding me of a time when I was stuck in a similar traffic jam in Chicago caused by the passing of father Bush.  While there we met with a pimply-faced Minister of Transportation and made little progress in our negotiations as deal breaking "collateral" issue came up; I had a nice evening stoll through the old ruins of an Ottoman fort and dropped in on an Eastern Orthodox church ceremony (which I found beautiful though a b! it creepy, as the worshipping spaces in their churches are small, crowded with the pious and made to seem further cramped by the smoke of incense and walls completely covered with icons).  Heard no gun fire or bomb blasts from the nearby hills, where recently some Albanian rebels complaining of an absence of political adn economic rights had been trying to mess things up a bit.  I was told by local, non-Albanians, that the trouble had been exaggerated by the western press.  All very interesting.  Details will be in the book!
Love, 
Mark    
>From: TOMSKILLJR@aol.com  
>To: markskilling@hotmail.com  
>CC: jskilli@enron.com, TOMSKILLJR@aol.com, tskilling@tribune.com  
>Subject: Pictures  
>Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 15:56:24 EDT  
>  
>Hi MARK!  
> The pictures arrived today. Your letter was dated April 6 so it took  
>ten days.  
> Tell Sukran Mother and I think she is beautiful. We sure enjoyed  
>seeing them all. I made copies for Sue and Tom and will mail them this  
>afternoon.  
> Thank you so much. LOTS of LOVE and KISSES to YOU and Sukran from  
>MOTHER and I. DAD  

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