The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) fosters mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of countries around the world through a variety of international programs based on the benefits of mutual understanding, educational and cultural exchange, and leadership development

Around 1987, I noticed a funny thing about aerial photos of African villages: they look a lot like fractals, the repetitive shapes from computer graphics. Rectangular architecture had nested rectangles within; circular houses were in circles of circles, sometimes down to very small scales. A Fulbright fellowship gave me a year of travel in west and central Africa...