From a cup of Kenyan coffee

Having a minor temperature this morning, I stayed home for a sick leave.  This gave me a time for total re-charging of myself from the recent hectic life.  I haven’t made myself syphon coffee for a while.  Today, I made a cup from the Kenyan coffee beans.

I remember the days when I still a small kid, there were TV news reports on the severe famine of people living in such African countries as Kenya and Ethiopia.  I naïvely asked mum why these people lived in such an environment.  She said, ‘because people were poor’.  And I cried for these people.

African countries have undergone a lot of improvement in recent tens of years.  The once poor lands now become fertile grounds for coffee plantation.  Thanks for organizations such as OXFAM who taught people ways of plantation, helping these people to help themselves.  Places like Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania fall exactly on the best areas of the world’s coffee belt which give them special blessings in producing the most famous beans in the coffee industry. 

Today, I really feel happy for these people.  They show us hopes in hopeless situations.  And today, I am no longer a little girl with naivety in all things.  People are poorer than us only because we are luckier.  And I would never learn to take things for granted.

今天因為早上發燒，沒有上班，便待在家中；這卻給了我一個好好的機會，從近來忙碌的生活中竭一竭，充一充電。已很久沒有為自己做一杯塞風壼的咖啡，今天，就來一杯用肯雅豆子做的塞風壼咖啡。

記得小時候不時在電視新聞報導中，得悉非洲一些國家，如肯雅和埃塞俄比亞等地，人民都受著饑飢的煎熬。那時，無知的我問媽媽為什麼那些人會生活在這樣的環境中，媽媽說：「因為這些人貧窮」… 我為這些人而哀慟。

數十年來，非洲國家經歷了很多改善，曾是貧脊的土地，現今成為種植咖啡最佳的土壤。感謝如OXFAM等的組織，教導當地人民咖啡種植的方法，讓他們助人自助。現今，如埃塞俄比亞、肯雅和坦桑尼亞等地方，正落在全球最好的咖啡帶上，讓這些地方得到最大的祝福，為全球出產最出名的豆子。

今天，我為這些人而慶幸，因為他們在絕望的環境中，讓我們看見希望。而今天，我再不是一個小女孩，天真地感受生活中的每件事情。世界某些角落，別人比我們貧窮只因為我們比他們幸運；而我也學懂，對身邊的事物，不要當是理所當然。