Who wouldn't want to share a coffee with Amélie?
At the recent Open Mic Night in Lava Pies, Amélie Yan-Gouiffes shared this sweet and touching story about her first drop of Columbian coffee.
Simple and sweet yet groundbreaking at the same time, her story takes place shortly after an earthquake devastated Columbia where she was working in disaster management and relief work.
The community was destroyed and while she was walking around surveying some of the damage, with furniture and bits of plastic all smashed together and deposited all over the place like a bomb had hit it, she saw a woman.
I cannot do justice to the French native's beautiful description of her experience but think it is worth sharing so that we can all celebrate International Coffee Day which I believe was yesterday.
Amélie saw a woman amongst the rubble and the woman was smiling at her. As Amélie approached the woman she could see she was holding something and as she approached further she could see that the local woman was offering her some coffee.
Excuse the mess but I wasn't expecting guests
There amongst the demolished buildings and broken glass was a woman welcoming the French woman for a cup of coffee and when Amélie looked closer at the pot, she could see it had a sock.
The sock was being used as a clever environmentally reusable filter and I don't know if it was Right or all that was Left but the brown stained sock worked well as a coffee filter even if Amélie didn't know how many times the filter had been used and if the brown stained sock was even clean when the woman put it on.
Boiling the water is absolutely essential in such extreme conditions but the warm cup of coffee was a wonderful welcome for the French girl who was so far from home and it was her first time to try a magical drop of Columbian coffee.
Amélie is a Public Speaker specialising in Disaster Management and Social Responsibility and is currently working on a book that discusses some of her other experiences. Amélie helps people to improve their public speaking skills and this gem was taken from one of her talks where Amélie encourages people to "Reveal your Inner Diamond."
I look forward to picking up a copy of her book to keep on my coffee table.
Above: Audrey Tautou playing the sweet and wonderful Amelie Poulain in the French film Amelie.
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