Algebra in Addis Ababa for Tweni teacher Naomi
Aside from the direct classroom input she also has opportunity to disciple some of the young girls who live there and she is involved with a local church.
Naomi Charlton, a maths teacher from Umtentweni is currently living in Ethiopia … where there is no official lockdown. She’s with Bingham Academy, based in Addis Ababa, having previously worked at Port Shepstone High from 2014 to 2018.
As a Christian, attending Norwegian Settlers Church, she felt in 2018 that she could serve God in a different capacity. “Coming from a family of missionaries and being a teacher, I wanted to serve missionaries by teaching their children so that they can focus on their ministries,” she said. Naomi is with an international mission organisation called SIM.
One of the reasons for choosing to serve at Bingham was because my dad went here as a child when my grandparents were missionaries back in the ’60s.
Aside from the direct classroom input she also has opportunity to disciple some of the young girls who live there and she is involved with a local church. “I am loving this time of fellowship with the Ethiopians. We have developed a deep friendship and I have people to practise my Amharic with!”
Naomi explained that Ethiopia has not been put into lockdown.”The Ethiopian government seems to be pro-active. Police are preventing large groups of people meeting at churches and mosques. Schools are closed. Public meetings of more than four people are prohibited,” she said. She added the mayor of Addis Ababa was taking the threat seriously, but also understood that a complete lockdown will lead to starvation in the city.
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“They are trying to balance the need for employment to buy food with a sensible approach to distancing. Bakeries are delivering bread to avoid unnecessary shopping. Wine and beer producers have converted to making hand sanitiser.” In addition, she said local businessmen have loaned their newly-finished apartment blocks to the government to use as quarantine spaces and politicians have taken a 10 percent salary reduction to help with the economics of providing for all of this unexpected need.”I thank God for His protection during this time and that the number of cases here seems to be relatively low,” she said.
As far as school goes, Bingham is in its fourth term and the work has all been done online.”While I was at Sheppie, I was known to not do well with technology – the only maths teacher who did not want a smart board!” she laughed.” During this time I have learnt a lot, from simple things like scheduling an email to send at a later stage so parents don’t know you are working over the weekend, to making and editing videos. I still have a love/hate relationship with Zoom though!”
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