Akwaaba. Akwaaba is a Ghanaian word which means “welcome.” It is, without a doubt, a word that is well-suited to the Ghanaian people. They are indeed a welcoming and generous society to all who venture there.

During the fall semester of 2018, I had the pleasure of hosting a faculty member from the Department of Pharmacology at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Dr. Kwesi Boadu Mensah, better known by his colleagues and students as “KBM,” was given the opportunity to learn about the Michigan State University veterinary curriculum with a particular focus on pharmacology and toxicology. This opportunity was supported through the United States Department of Agriculture Faculty Exchange Program grant administered by the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine’s Center for Comparative Epidemiology. To complement his studies and research interests, he also learned about the MSU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and its mission. He fully participated in evaluating analytical toxicology techniques and applied some of these techniques to his interest in Ghanaian herbal medicine.

In exchange, I had an amazing opportunity to travel to Kumasi, Ghana to visit Dr. KBM at KNUST. The University had just opened campus for new and returning students when I had arrived. The campus was teaming with thousands of students. “More than 50,000 students,” KBM boasted. KNUST is by and large an engineering school with more recent support for other STEM fields and a new business school. The Veterinary College also is relatively new and has plans in place to finish building a large and small animal clinic to serve the general public.

Whatever preconceptions I had about whether an African university could support the types of equipment the MSU VDL has were quickly dashed during my visit to the KNUST Central Laboratory. While KNUST may not have the numbers of instruments that MSU VDL and the University Core facilities on campus have, what they have is the critical foundation for supporting state-of-the-art diagnostics. In particular, KNUST has a power grid, contingency generators, and redundant backup systems that are crucial to support sensitive analytical equipment. In time, with the proper backing, KNUST may become a leader in diagnostics in Africa’s western horn.

As a part of the trip, I also provided two talks/lectures. For the faculty in the Department of Pharmacology and in Veterinary Medicine, I gave a talk on One Health and Diagnostic Toxicology in US Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories. To the veterinary students, I provided a talk on Diagnostic Toxicology with Selected Case Reports. The talks provided good discussion, and for many of the veterinary students, an opportunity to hear about the field of toxicology and its application to the veterinary sciences for the first time in their education.

But my trip wasn’t entirely about work. While I was in Kumasi, Dr. KBM took me on a trip to the Bobiri Forest to experience hiking through a dense tropical rainforest. I also took in an Asante Kotoko SC game at Baba Yara Stadium and experienced many of the richly spiced foods that are staples of the Ghanan diet.

The faculty exchange program provided me with an opportunity to not only see another faculty member’s country, culture, and challenges, but it allowed me to put my own life and work circumstances and obstacles into proper context. The faculty exchange program was life-changing; the continent of Africa has a wealth of opportunities to become involved in solving global problems. I look forward to my next trip and hope to see fellow Spartans along the way who will make that bigger commitment to broaden their perspective and work toward the common good.