Every year American faculty members bring students to Africa to participate in study-abroad programs. Last December Joseph Akol Makeer, a Sudanese student at the author's institution, North Dakota State University, turned the tables and brought the author to his home village in Sudan, Duk Payuel, to see how they might help rebuild that war-torn region. In this article, the author describes what he has learned in two and a half years of friendship with Joseph. He states that this association has been like enrolling in a program in African history and refugee studies, and has taught him the value of pedagogical approaches, like studying abroad and service learning, that seek to bring education into the world at large.