Delegates to the first Pan-ACYO Meeting
The theme for today was meetings - we were at Etchmiadzin all day for the first official day of the Pan-ACYO Assembly. It was a great experience, but a pretty LONG day. His Holiness Karekin 2 kicked off the Assembly. Hovnan Srpazan had wanted one speaker from each region to present their heart-felt thoughts in front of the Assembly to Vehapar. For North America, we had designated Maria Derderian - an awesome, fun, and well-versed member from the Eastern Diocese who graduated from St. Nersess and now works at the Diocese in one of their myriad of youth programs. She made an excellent presentation and represented us well. Then, however, in typical Hovnan Srpazan SURPRISE! fashion, I heard my name announced next as a speaker. It is nerve wracking enough for me to behave in the same room as somebody of Vehapar's stature, so imagine me having to now make a speech! But you know how preachers often say that God directs their words and helps them say what needs to be said? I definitely felt that whilst I spoke - afterwards, Tamara told me it was very good - but I'm not sure she would say otherwise...would you Tam? Anyway, I think somebody got a picture of this, so when they send it to me, I will post it here.
The rest of the day was spent in smaller working groups, hashing out various details of the organization. I would say it was productive. And the organizers of the Assembly, all from Armenia, had done an excellent job of integrating various ways to get all the participants to get to know each other - things like Secret Buddy, smaller working groups, etc - really helped us to integrate with our brothers and sisters from other countries in ways we could not have (or would not have) otherwise. Tamara and I kept saying we should integrate some of those ideas into our own ACYO Conventions back home!
Friday, July 18, 2008
"20 Minutes"
Meetings all day in Etchmiadzin. We had an adventure after the group dinner. Maria, Tamara and I decided to go get some dinner because we were served boiled koufta, something I had never before seen. So we walked to the Hrabarag (Central Square) to the Hotel Armenia (now Marriott Hotels) and chilled in the awesome A/C for a bit. Maria called her mom and we decided we would meet in "20 minutes". That time passed, no Mrs. Derderian yet. So, Maria called back - mom was on her way. Another 20 minutes. After all was said and done, about an hour and a half later, we were picked up by somebody else and taken to a restaurant that none of us would have found on our own, to a basement. We all momentarily feared for our lives. Turns out the restaurant had great food - and Maria's mom was found there in a meeting. She is an awesome character - very lively and fun - I felt at home :)
Hrabarag - Central Square in Armenia
Needless to say, for the rest of the time in Armenia, we always told each other we would be somewhere to meet up in 20 minutes.
Hovig, Tamara, Maria
Yay! Ok, so I have a great picture of you hovig, when you were making the motion of the "neon looys"! I was starting to feel left out of the blog because you hadn't mentioned Maria or I yet! We MADE your trip! You know it! And, no, I would have not said anything differently then positive encouragement! If it was crap, I would have probably said something like, "ya, sure, it was good. but you should have said..." Tam :)
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