I first landed on African soil in August 1999, prepared to begin a yearlong master’s program in the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. During my final year as an undergraduate majoring in international affairs at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, I had applied for and was awarded a scholarship from the Rotary International Foundation. Although I had about nine months to prepare myself for my stay in Ghana, the reality of everything I saw and experienced there defied and often surpassed my expectations. The university is in Legon, a short distance north of the capital city of Accra. Accra is an enormous, sprawling city, and I really didn’t expect it to be quite so big. But with a map in hand, it was fairly simple to get from place to place, and people went out of their way to make sure I got to where I was going, if I asked for help. There is a lot of poverty, a lot of children who are on the streets selling odds and ends rather than going to school, and a lot of pollution (air, water, land, noise—you name it). But there is also an enormously warm feeling there, which is somehow indescribable. Friendliness and helpfulness seem to be characteristic, and despite the healthy dose of precaution I tried to maintain, I had the feeling (and I have been told, as well) that Accra is a very safe city.