Coffee and Cake

Ahhh, coffee and cake. Nothing provides a better chance for me to get comfy and start talkin! So here we are, with coffee in hand...

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Name: Kylie
Location: Tehran, Iran

Monday, February 8, 2010

National Conference Debrief

Well, I'm back in the office after my most unique National Conference ever.

We arrived on Kish Island, the Iranian Dubai, at around lunchtime on Monday. We started to case the joint, the delegates started to settle into rooms, and we were all enjoying warm tropical weather.

Saman (MCP) had been dropped off on the way to the hotel to check in with the venue. He came back with a face like thunder. The conference had been cancelled.

That's right. Some governmental people from the Office of God-Knows-What (something to do with the President and security etc) had decided that a. our assembly was illegal and we could not run the conference, and b. AIESEC Iran was basically fradulent, having no official links to AIESEC International. Saman had been investigated, and they questioned him for quite some time about his personal (!) activities as well as those of AIESEC.

Ok. So. Conference. All that hard work. All the preparation, the stress, the coordination. Swept out from under us like *that*. We told the delegates that conference was cancelled, and tried to work out what would come next. (Not to mention that we had a faci in Dubai, getting ready to board a flight, and the second half of the delegates boarding their own flight).

Finally everyone arrived to the news. We sat for some time, shell shocked. We were worried about what this could mean for us. We knew that if they started asking questions back in Tehran, the university would jettison us without a second thought. Tabiri and I wondered briefly if our terms would be cut short, given that AIESEC's legal status was now in question. Would there even be AIESEC in Iran when we got home??

The conference team sat down later that night to brainstorm. Eventually, we decided to run the conference anyway. Hence, the not-a-conference, underground resistance style. We ended up splitting our delegates into three groups, stashed them into the hotel rooms and gave the most important sessions of the conference over three days.

It was insane, that is for sure. One of the rooms became the faci room by default, and that is another story all by itself. Of course here, it's completely improper for men to be in women's rooms and vice versa. Nevertheless, I'd started to come and go from the guys room (I was the only lady-faci). We held our meetings there, general session prep and flipcharts galore.

On the morning of 'Day 2' of this not-a-conference, the facis gathered to have a confirmation meeting before the day's session begun. There was a knock on the door and I answered. Before me stood a pissed off looking guard, complete with beard and bad attitude. He proceeded to drag me over coals for being in the boys room, said he's seen me there more than once etc. I was furious and exhausted, so I just walked away.

I came back later of course, because I had work to do. I unceremoniously stood at the door, yelling into the room about what was coming next. My bearded friend appeared again, and although I clearly stated that I wasn't in the room, he threatened to have me arrested and taken to the police station.

Joy.

Anyway, we managed. We got it all to work, slowly but surely. Quietly, clandestinely, minus just about every hallmark of a conference. No dances, no shouts, no booze, no plenary, no nothing. Although, in keeping with tradition, the food was pretty bad. We held secret, single-sex sessions. On the last day, we threw caution to the wind and fixed flipcharts to the walls between rooms so we could hold an Opportunity Fair.

Finally, finally, the conference was over. Excellent. Time to head home to the relative normality of Tehran. As a final send off, Kish Island somehow managed to delay our flight by 5 hours, ensuring that we arrived back at 5am, instead of 11.30pm.

Well, I can say that the delegates had an awesome time. For them it was unprecedented freedom, conference sessions and crazy activities and tourism. They loved it all, and made the most of everything. I was so absolutley freaking exhausted by the end of it, and I'm sure Saman was too. I was lucky - I just had to manage the conference. Saman had to deal with governmental offices, risks, personal investigations and god-knows-what else.

So yes. Another perfect example of the challenges one faces when one comes to Iran. And as usual, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Wish me luck


It's national conference time.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Limited access to brilliant minds

I've been following Seth Godin's blog for a while. At first, I couldn't understand what the fuss was about. But I've definitely begun to see the value of his work.

He's just released a new book called Lynchpin. Seth an innovator, and he's proven this again with the launch of the book. Instead of going to traditional media (print, radio, TV), he contacted 40 high-potential, status-quo challenging bloggers and gave interviews.

The strange thing is that while cruising through this list of links (and I certainly haven't checked them all out), it appears that approximately 40% of the links are blocked here. Even with innocuous sounding urls, no obvious bad words or associations, they are blocked.

Which bums me out. A - I don't get access to fresh new ideas and innovative minds, but B - neither does anyone else in Iran.

Monday, January 25, 2010

While in Tehran, I've been to:

A British New Years Eve party,

A Norweigan Christmas party and

A Scottish Robert Burns party (complete with haggis).

And tomorrow I'm going to an Aussie Aussie Day party. Scratch that. I watched the cricket instead. And we won.

Who said Iran wasn't multicultural?

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Epiphany of the Day

Genevieve: a once in a lifetime adventure ;)
me: that is so right!
09:56 When am I going to be this free again?
And that's when it hit me. I'm 22. After June, I don't have a job. A home. A uni course to go back to. Nothing. I've been looking this the wrong way. Previously, it was "oh crap, I'm doomed because I have no plans". Now, it's "Oh wow. I'm free and can do whatever the hell I want to because I have no plans"
Woo hoo!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Congratulations to my team mate Tabiri, current MCVPX here in Tehran. He's just been elected as MCPe for AIESEC Ghana 1011.

Bloody excellent stuff, this guy is gonna go far.


Wednesday, January 6, 2010

It doesn't matter how far away a friend is, because they are always there for you.

Thanks, Jess!