DeEtte Beghtol Waleed says that Africa changed her life. Her six years teaching peacebuilding in Zambia created new lenses for her to see the world. She experienced a myriad of African cultures through her students from many war-torn countries who came to Zambia to learn how to lead their communities to peace. Messengers of Peace, her first book of creative nonfiction, contains stories of collaborators in peacebuilding, ordinary individuals working in diverse ways to make the world more peaceful. Waleed has been a peace activist and community organizer for more than 20 years. She believes that we learn best by sharing our personal journeys with each other. She teaches at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her partner.