International service-learning offers students a complex cluster of educational opportunities that include cultural competency acquisition combined with professional development. An interdisciplinary program in a remote area of Tanzania revealed that the journey toward competence can be an arduous one. Drawing from students’ reflections in journals and focus groups, the authors identified students’ personal apprehensions and challenges, intra-group relationships and processes, reciprocity with the community participants, and students’ emerging self-confidence and competencies as the major developmental experiences. The affective domain of learning was prominent in the students’ reflections on their experiences and personal development. Constructivist grounded theory guided the qualitative analysis of journals and focus group transcripts. The authors suggest that faculty contemplating an international service-learning program prepare not only for program logistics, but also for processing personal and intra-group challenges, and incorporating them as part of the international service-learning experience.