A Typical Workshop by Rodney Priest
​Having contacted the Head or Principal either directly myself or through a local colleague, such as the head of science or chemistry, I usually arrive the day before, meet the technician and set up the apparatus, some of which I have brought with me. On the day of the workshop, delegates arrive between 9.30 and 10, I register and welcome them and record their contact details so as to keep in touch. Around the lab walls, I often put a display of 40+ year old photos of me with mates in Bukoba, a DipEd certificate from Makerere, some maps and other memorabilia to show I am not entirely new to their part of the world.
The day starts with my list of character traits which I have found in most black Africans that I have met and worked with — Fitness, Patience, Strength, Resilience, Optimism, Respect, Ingenuity, Belief in the Future and Community Spirit which, along with Open-Minded Scepticism, in my opinion, bode well for Africans’ success as scientists. We talk about Honesty, Open-mindedness and Team Spirit as being indispensable for all scientists and I then work to convince them that I say these things not to ingratiate myself with the them but because it is my true opinion. I invite them to disagree, but they rarely do.
Early on in the day, we set up an important experiment with steel wool rusting in a boiling tube above a quantity of tapped air and from this their dexterity and practical skills can be assessed. The bulk of the day is taken up with experiments and demonstrations showing how coffee processes – roasting, grinding, percolating, etc — from bean to cup can illustrate important concepts which secondary school pupils are required to learn for their exams. Interspersed are my pedagogic suggestions for successful lessons and ways to choose other industries besides coffee to study as exemplars. We discuss terms of trade, value added and economic relations between producer and consumer countries. We learn how instant coffee is made and why much of the “plant” (apparatus) to produce it is, in fact, made in a cold Northern, non-coffee-producing country, Denmark. We compare the physiological and psychological and toxicological effects of caffeine and alcohol on the body and make molecular models of these two natural organic substances. Very soon the day must end at around 4 p.m. but by now we have had a good hour break for lunch, financed by friends in England at a “Bean Feast” here at home in Colerne on my birthday 13th January when we consume cheese and wine and listen to recorded classical music.
Lastly, there is distribution of the all-important Certificates of Attendance, group photos and a gift of a small electronic balance to the host school. At night or, ideally, even sooner, perhaps after tea, I write up my log and academic journal to record people, phenomena and occurrences which have caught my imagination, particularly my impressions of the questions which delegates have asked. To tell the truth, though, this has often been an unrealised ideal if I am exhausted at the end of a workshop day.
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