Falling for Niagara Falls

Making a visit to Niagara Falls one of the natural wonders of the world has been my secret desire ever since I landed the United States. But I know not all desires need to be fulfilled and I made no extra effort to realize it. I am only wondering when it comes to good things happening to you, you begin to appreciate and thank God for making it happened. Well, this time around it was Fr. Josekutty who organized a trip for me to Niagara Falls. It was more than a surprise to me when he announced that he has arranged a two day visit to Niagara Falls along with Fr. Sanjay. I was really excited about it and we took off for Niagara on July 26, 2011. It was rather long 8 hours drive from Mt. Carmel Church, NJ but timely coffee stopovers and plenty of music kept us through.

Niagara Falls as we well know is situated at the Canadian-United States International Border – in the Province of Ontario and the State of New York. It is the second largest falls on the planet next to Victoria Falls in southern Africa. And one of the most exciting moments on visiting the Falls was the night visit to the site where coloured floodlights illuminating both sides (United States & Canada) of the Falls for several hours of the night. It almost looked like an artificial colour display over the natural water falls. Looking down from Goat Island or the Bridal Veil Falls, the Cave of the winds looked unbelievable with a rainbow surrounding it. And the most exciting of all is the long expected Maid of the Mist boat ride. It’s just unbelievable and as you near right up to the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls you can feel the weight of the sea of water falling on you. It is an incredible feeling to be right there.

It’s worth spending hours watching the wonder of creation, the beauty of nature all around. It’s a trip worth the making. No one regrets when you have spent every moment enjoying it.

 This is Niagara Falls. Enjoy it.

Surprise and Surprises

From here to there and there to here has been my constant surprieses. Now it is to Washington DC. I do not think if I even had a remote plan to go to Washington DC unless by some surprise. And here you go again, from day one Fr. Bill wanted something special for me and it could not have been better than to take me to the Country’s capital, Washington DC. This means six plus hours of driving. Besides, finding people to cover him in the parish (he is the pastor) isn’t always a pleasant thing to do. But he did not seemed to mind with all these inconvinces. I will never know why he did all these for me.

Up we left at 2.00pm July 5 from Our Lady of Mercy, Winston-Salem NC for Washington DC. We put up at the Friary in Washington who treated us as special guests. The following day we took a double deck hop on - hop off tour that took us around the Washington DC. The tour covering all the important sites of the capital city. You admire the grandeur of the city and all its important sites especially when you visit places like U.S. Capitol Builiding, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, JDR Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, or the Arlington Cemetery and the site of the JF Kennedy family tombs, etc.
The following day we visited the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception at the Catholic University. I must say it was quite an experience, expecially the lower level – the crypt which is so well designed giving an aura of spiritual depth.  Then we came back home-home, Our Lady of Mercy. You are up the next morning and it’s Friday and you must soon be moving to the next weekend.  The time here passed by so fast. I hope to mark a special sketch in here as I move on to the next.
Below is a short clip.

Tour, Detour & Re-Tour

I have posted right away on FB the ordeal I went through as far as my journey to the United States is concerned. As it stands my tour should have began on 29^th June. I promptly started off at about 8.30am from Collegio San Paolo, Roma for the Airport which normally would have taken me 45 minutes-maximum. I earned much patients this day and learned what it means to be caught in the traffic. And promptly reached the airport after 3 hours on the road and 15 minutes left for the flight to take off. By the time I hop on to the shuttle bus and reach the counter I was left with 5 minutes and as much as I hated to hear, I was politely told in negative. They managed to assure me on standby for the next day’s flight. I think the real agony began there. You are never sure if you are going to find a seat the next day and sure enough after hours of anxious waiting the next day until the boarding started and to be told that there isn't a seat to spare. They did find a seat in the flight that goes to Charlotte NC and I boarded on it and got connected to Philadelphia in time only to find that the checked in baggage did not arrived. I got it the next day anyway. This really was an ordeal. It was something like a tour, detour and re-tour if there is such a thing.

And now I must get into action for which I am here for. My first mission station is at Our Lady of Mercy Parish, Winston-Salem in the diocese of Charlotte NC. I reached Greensboro on the Saturday July 3 and Fr. Bill Robinson OFM the pastor was there to pick me up. He is such a kind man and very caring. He made sure that I was really feeling at home and at ease especially after all travel adventures. The mission appeal experience was very positive and the people were actually eager to hear more about our mission, more so Fr. Bill. I am going to be with him through the week until the next weekend when I will move out to another parish in the same diocese of Charlotte NC. I am so happy to have met Fr. Bill, who is well informed, learned and deeply spiritual. We are having great time.