Sydney neighbors finally meet in Yerevan

"Are you the other Australian girl!?" We both asked each other, standing in the middle of the door frame of the Birthright Armenia office. After a long embrace, we began finding out exactly which city we were from and who we knew in common, which was pretty much the entire Armenian community in Sydney.

"Do you know so and so? What about AYF, did you go to HASG?" Questions after questions, until it was clear we had many mutual friends and we've practically been to every Armenian event ever hosted.

Then the question came....'Where do you live?'.

We both said 'North Ryde' and looked at each other in bewilderment. Not only did we both come from Sydney, not only did we have mutual friends within the community, not only were we doing Birthright Armenia together from Australia, but we lived in the same suburb... 5 minutes away from each other!

We began to laugh uncontrollably, mentioning every familiar street, shopping mall, and even the nearest medical center!

We came from the same neighborhood, the same friendly circle of Australian-Armenian youths but we hadn’t know about each other's existence until that very moment, meeting right here in Yerevan, standing between the doors of the Birthright office...13000km away from home.

Not only has Birthright given us this amazing opportunity to reconnect with our motherland, give back to this country through volunteer work and embrace our heritage and culture, but it has given us the chance to meet Armenians not only from all over the world but also those close to home and

Love from Meghety & Jasmine
Birthright Volunteers from Sydney Australia.