Armenia - Post 1

Tuesday, July 8, 2008:
2345 hours

Landed at Zvartnots International Airport in Armenia. They have built a beautiful new departures and arrivals terminal/lounge. Quite an improvement from the old Soviet UFO looking building. That said, the old building did have some unique characteristics - the new building looks like every other newly constructed airport. Not much unique local flava. Regardless, I was into the terminal, through Passport Control and waiting for luggage within minutes. My luggage was not to arrive tonight - but my name was on a list with the BMI agent, who informed me it would arrive in the next couple days. Great!



Wednesday, July 9, 2008:
0110 hours

Family met me outside Customs. Was very happy to see all of them again! The last time we all saw each other was 2001 when I went to Armenia for the 1700th Celebration of Armenia accepting Christianity as its official state religion. They insisted I go with them for tonight instead of going to the CYMA hotel, so with them I went. We arrived to their apartment around 0130 hours and had a lovely time talking about life. Within 30 minutes, there was a spread on the table of various meats, cheeses, vegetables and fruits. Needless to say, I didn't get to sleep until about 0400 hours. I woke up around noon in a haze, still trying to figure out which way was left!

The apartments in Armenia (the old school ones, I assume), have a very unique shower system. You fill up a huge tank with water, located directly above the bathtub. Then, before you plan on showering, you plug in the heating system for a couple hours to heat that water. Then, when you are ready to shower, you turn the spigot that sticks out of the tank and walla! Warm water comes pouring out. Pretty neat system. So I showered and got ready for our first meetings, to be held at St. Sarkis Church later in the evening.

I must admit, when I agreed to attend these meetings, I didn't realize just how historic and momentous an opportunity this actually was. I attended the FIRST Assembly of the International ACYO (Armenian Church Youth Organization)! This was actually a huge event in the life of the Armenian Apostolic Church! Hovnan Srpazan (Archbishop) has been working on this idea since 2001, and thanks to his extremely hard work, the first General Assembly of the organization was able to be held. And together with 134 other delegates from almost every continent in the world, we helped firmly plant the seeds for the organization to grow and prosper in the growing years and decades.