Fulbright-Hays Group Visits Guinea and Sierra Leone Lisa B. Randle On May 25, 2008, two College of Charleston employees departed from Charleston bound for West Africa. Lisa B. Randle and Curtis Franks were among 13 educators selected to participate in the prestigious Mano River Fulbright program. The objectives of the trip included experiencing daily life and customs of West Africa; drawing connections among Gullah, Geechee, and West African cultures; and sharing these lessons with African and Lowcountry students and adults. The group studied in Sierra Leone and Guinea for approximately five weeks. The entire Mano River Fulbright team included employees from Trident Technical College, the Charleston County School District, the College of Charleston, the Avery Institute, the South Carolina State Museum, and Chicago State University. After an overnight stay in Conakry, the group spent a few days in Freetown (the capital and largest city) and Bo (the second largest city) in Sierra Leone. About the size of South Carolina, Sierra Leone is recovering from its civil war (1991-2002). While in Freetown, we visited Bunce Island and Fourah Bay College, founded in 1827 as the first western-styled university in West Africa. In Bo, we visited Njala University, a major university and second largest after Fourah Bay College; both are part of the University of Sierra Leone system. Njala was previously known as Bo Teachers College; it became a full college in 2005 and operates on principles similar to Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute. The majority of the Fulbright trip was spent in Guinea. The itinerary included Musée National de Guinée, Grande Mosque, Niger Market, University of Conakry in Conakry, and Iles de Los, just off the coast. Side trips were made to the village of Farenya and the towns of Boffa and Boké; all have past associations with the slave trade. Guinea is a major exporter of bauxite; we visited the site of two plants in the towns of Kamsar and Fria. We spent time in Mamou, Pita, Dalaba, Labé, Timbo, and Kankan in the Fouta Djallon (Fuuta-Jaloo, Fuuta Jalon, and Futa Jalon) region in the center of Guinée. Timbo was formerly an important religious center in the eighteenth century, as evidenced by its mosque. On the road to Kankan, we spent time with a family in a Malinké Village that is known for its vernacular architecture. Kankan, the second largest city in Guinée with a largely Mandinka population, is known for the Université de Kankan, its religious scholars, and its mango trees. In an exit roundtable discussion at the U.S. embassy in Conakry, U.S. Ambassador Philip Carter stated that we “had visited more of Guinea than any of his staff.”