Sudbury Resident Takes in a World of Knowledge

Sometimes, Liz Wellen could walk from island to island.

This is not because she was granted Jesus-like, walk-on-water-abilities, but because of where she was stationed for World Teach, a non-profit that sends volunteers abroad and puts them in classrooms (think Peace Corps plus Teach for America).

For five months this year, Wellen, a Sudbury resident and graduate from the University of the South, relocated to the Marshall Islands, a country made up of dozens of atolls. And, at low tide, many of these water-locked landmasses could be accessed on foot.

If the timing worked out, Wellen could walk from her island Gugeegue (pronounced goo-jee-goo) which had about 150 people living on it, to the school on the island of Ebeye, which has about 50,000 people living on a half-square mile.

"People sometimes call Ebeye the slum of the Pacific," Wellen said. "There are so many people packed onto the island that locals joke about having to take turns sleeping."

Wellen says that the experience of teaching in a developing country was at the same time very difficult and incredibly rewarding.

"It wasn't so much the language barrier," she said. "Even though some of them spoke no English at all, it seemed like we were able to always find a way to communicate. It had more to do with cultural differences, like the fact that American schooling tends to be a lot more structured than Marshallese."

In other words, there were a lot of discipline problems.

"There were days when I couldn't keep them from jumping on desks and yelling," she said. "Sometimes they sent me home crying… Once, when they saw how upset I was they told me to keep them in line I should hit them. They even demonstrated how I should do it."

She never did. But, despite the problems, Wellen said there were times when the children were the best part of her experience. Once, she had to go to the hospital with intestinal problems, and kids from her class stayed with her in the waiting room while others spent the day cleaning the classroom.

Wellen said that while she doesn't expect to become a teacher, her experience gave her a lot of life-perspective.

"Going abroad is so important to better understand the world," she said. "I have so much respect for people in the Marshall Islands. Not only are they knowledgeable about so many different things like handcrafts and, spear fishing, or using a coconut to make a million different things, but they know about the importance of family and relationships. It may be a poorer country in some ways, but it's a rich country in most."

-- Ben Terris