What drives a person to continually cross boundaries - geographically, culturally, personally? Heinz Strubenhoff shares a life story that spans Germany, Africa, and Eastern Europe. As an employee of the World Bank, he experienced international development cooperation up close: its ideals, successes, and contradictions. Through his experiences in Togo, Ukraine, Moldova, and Ethiopia, he connects personal anecdotes with a critical reflection on the meaning, impact, and future of development aid. He speaks candidly about doubts, mistakes, and formative encounters. Historical upheavals such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Maidan Revolution, and the war in Ukraine provide the backdrop for a tumultuous life story. This is an autobiographical quest for responsibility, effective international collaboration, and the question of what we truly seek in foreign lands.