This is the remarkable story of how a boy from rural Welcome, North Carolina grew up to become an innovative judge, global citizen, and go-to guy for court-building in emerging African nations.

Along the way, he organizes the first-ever judicial conference in Tanzania, jogs with children in Lusaka, dances with a python, and has adventures ranging from the harrowing to the hilarious.

In the end, he discovers the distance between Welcome and Windhoek is not as great as he imagined, and that both places now occupy adjoining spaces in his heart.