from Matlabe - An African thanks, Pueblo

 The Pueblo Chieftain Sunday, April 10, 2011

 

An African thanks, Pueblo.

 

I am a school principal in a small village in Lesotho. My knowledge of the world was very limited and I knew not what to expect in America, where I came for the first time outside my native southern Africa.

 

As I leave Pueblo and the United States I have a strong desire to speak my gratitude to the people of this community for the wonderful experiences you have given me during two weeks among you.

 

I was astonished sitting in an automobile through an automatic car wash, attending a church service where the songs were projected on a screen, having my teeth examined and cleaned in a dentist's office. I had never imagined these things, and many others.

 

But the most powerful impression is the people. From the very first I was welcomed as a friend and I have not been treated in any other way by anyone during this visit. Your generous hospitality and many courtesies to a foreigner and stranger in your midst speak eloquently of the United States as a nation of kind, caring people.

  

Now Pueblo will be known to the residents of a small African village. Thank you.

 

Matlabe Teba

Ketane, Lesotho, Africa