The Weddle and Ellis families celebrate Christmas in 2005 at the Butler Officers’ Club on Camp Foster in Okinawa Japan. Ashlea Ellis, center left, and Tiffiney Weddle, center right, are sisters and educators employed by the Department of Defense Dependents Schools. Pictured from the back row from left to right: Brian Ellis, Ashlea Ellis, Tiffiney Weddle and Geoff Weddle. Bottom row from left to right: Ellis and Weddle’s father, Danny Staples, Milicent Weddle, Jalen Ellis, Ellis and Weddle’s mother, Barbara Staples and Landon Weddle. (Courtesy of Tiffiney Weddle)
Ashlea Ellis’ older sister for years tried to persuade her to come to Okinawa.
Tiffiney Weddle — then a gifted education teacher at Bechtel Elementary School — would boast about the local beaches and festive Japanese culture. And she would rave about the innovative teaching going on in DODDS schools.
"She would call and tell me about all these things she was doing and the wonderful environment," Ellis said.
Back then, Ellis was a first-grade teacher in Laurel, Miss. Life overseas sounded appealing, but she and her husband, Brian, liked that their young sons were growing up with grandparents close by.
"We just never could see going to a faraway place," she said. "Finally, she just talked me into it. ... She’s the big sister and I’m the little sister, and I listen."
Ellis, 34, has been a DODDS teacher for seven years; Weddle, 37, has been with DODDS for almost a decade.
Like Weddle, Ellis said one motivating factor was that her meager salary in Mississippi — just a little over $21,000 — made it difficult to support her family. DODDS offered a salary boost, paid housing and good benefits.
For six years, the sisters and their families lived within walking distance of each other on Kadena Air Base. They talked two or three times a day, supported each others’ children at sports games, toured the island together and enjoyed family dinners.
“She became my best friend,” Weddle said.
Last year, Ellis and her family transferred to Germany — to try something different and to experience Europe. She’s now a second-grade teacher at Illesheim Elementary School in Bavaria.
“It was really nice having her here,” said Weddle, now an educational technologist with the Okinawa school district. “It was like being home.”
Ellis and her clan missed Thanksgiving and Christmas this year on Okinawa. But Weddle’s family is making a stop in Germany this summer.
“There are times I wish she didn’t go,” Weddle said. “But now I have an excuse to go to Europe.”
