Ben Carson is going to Africa. 

The retired neurosurgeon told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday that he's heading to Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia at the end of the month. 

“I have a tendency to like to see things firsthand. … You know, I tend to make a much bigger impression, so by going over to Jordan and actually talking to the Syrians themselves, and really getting their perspective on things, [I saw it was] very different from what we hear in the media. And it makes a difference,” Carson said. “ And I think we need to make decisions based on real information as opposed to filtered information.”

Carson — who has seen his poll numbers drop amid greater scrutiny of his comments about foreign policy — said he’s going to each place for a specific reason. 

"I think a lot of our policy in the future is going to affect Africa, but [I'm going to] those three [countries] in particular because my ancestors are from the Kenya-Tanzania region, the Turkana tribe. I’ve had all of that traced back," he said. "To Nigeria, I want to get an idea from the people what the effects of [terrorist group] Boko Haram are, what people are thinking, to see what the economic situation is there, and also there’s a medical school there named after me which I want to visit."

“And Zambia, because the twins, the Banda twins are there," Carson added. "We separated them. They were joined at the top of the head facing in opposite directions almost 18 years ago, and this is the year they graduate from high school.”

The Republican candidate recently visited a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, which he said persuaded him of his view that it's best to resettle those fleeing the violence in Syria within the Middle East, rather than in the United States.