Alumni Profile
Wendy-Marie Teichert
Humanitarian Worker
Shingling houses in the war-torn region of Bosnia-Herzegovina
is an unlikely setting for a Montessori catechist/graduate-student
botanist. But that was the setting for Wendy-Marie Teichert
(Class of 1981) in June.
Call it impulse; call it Providence. One day Teichert was
looking at photos of fleeing Kosovars and thirsty children
reaching through a train window for water. She wanted to do
something about it. She had a natural love for the region,
having traveled to Medjugorjia several times before in years
past.
Then she saw a flyer from the St. David's Relief Foundation:
"How are you going to spend your summer vacation?"
St. David's, a non-profit organization which imports everything
from goats to Gerbers into this war-torn region, invited her
to come to Bosnia for two weeks building houses that had been
destroyed. She enlisted.
Thirty hours after departing from her home town of Sacramento,
California, and linking up with 35 other volunteers at JFK
Airport in New York, Teichert found herself among a throng
of villagers in the town of Bodariste (Boh-dah-REESE-tah)
in northeastern Bosnia, close both to the Croatian and Serbian
borders. They escorted the humanitarians to a local restaurant
where they served up a generous meal of soup, fish, and potato
salad.
Seven years previously, on May 1, 1992, the village became
a battleground when Serb tanks started coming up the hill.
The villagers scrambled to defend themselves in a three-day
siege, which left eight dead. Over the next four years, 57
villagers died defending their homes. As families fled to
safer havens in Croatia and Austria, the population of 1200
dwindled to 37 families. Today, it has grown back to about
700 residents, thanks in part to groups like St. David's which
have built homes for people to return to.
Along with some skilled carpenters, Teichert was there to
help any way she could. "For me, it was challenging to
so much as hang a picture," she quips. Teichert joined
up with people from all ends of the country, contractors and
farmers, students and teachers, engineers, nurses, accountants
and friars, all with the common desire to help, and all sporting
grey baseball caps that read "Roofs across Bosnia."
A ten-minute bus ride through lush meadows brought the group
to Dubravice (Doo-brah-VEETZ-a), where every other house was
crumbling and pocked by bullets and shrapnel. Land mines still
covered the area. This is where St. David's would build for
the summer.
The group would rise before dawn to beat the heat. The more
knowledgeable roofers would attach the flashing and line up
the first row of shingles. Neophytes then followed. By 7:30
a.m., breakfast would arrive, after which roofing recommenced.
Throughout the day, workers would take half-hour shifts in
the Chapel, praying for the work of the day. They would break
for Mass at midday, have lunch, and then work until just before
dark. "I had to keep telling myself that I wasn't doing
this because it was fun," said Teichert.
Racial tensions still existed there, but Teichert saw signs
of hope. "The Muslim men sweated alongside the Catholics,
and joined us in our meals and invited us to theirs,"
she said of her experience in the town which was evenly divided
between Croats and Muslims. "On the other hand, locals
did admit that if the U.N. troops weren't there, they'd be
seeking retaliation against the Serbs."
At the end of their stint, the group had roofed seven houses
and one church. The villagers showed their appreciation by
throwing them a pig roast. Teichert, the roofer, then returned
to become Teichert, the teacher.
Teichert got her Montessori license in 1985 and taught at
schools in Mesa and Phoenix, Arizona until 1991. Concurrently
she trained with the Catechesis of the Good Sheperd, a Montessori-based
catechesis which helps children to encounter Christ. "A
child's love of God is connatural to a child," she said.
"Once you cultivate that, the moral life follows; the
moral life is an extension of that relationship."
She returned to California and now dedicates her teaching
to the Catechesis (and to tutoring college chemistry), having
helped form some 200 3-6 year-olds in her career. "Teaching
is one of those jobs where there are a lot of parts that aren't
in the job description. There are moments when you have to
do more than is expected. But those are the moments when I
most feel like a teacher." In addition to teaching, she
obtained a natural history degree at Santa Barbara City College
and is pursuing graduate-preparatory work in botany at Cal-State
University at Sacramento. "Plants and kids - I guess
it's my contribution to the growth industry," she laughs.
Teichert has also been involved in a host of other activities.
She is a big promoter for Immaculate Heart Radio, which just
opened a station in Sacramento, and she plays in the Sacramento
Recorder Society. She enjoys drawing, gardening, and free-lance
writing for Catholic publications. The St. Anthony Messenger
will be publishing her article on her Bosnia experience in
January or February.
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Fall 1999
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