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Goodwill America Tour
~New Orleans to Grand Rapids~
December 21, 2013 to January 1, 2014
It was a dream, at last we made it!
Shanti Thokchom, Raj Wilkin and Umeshkanta Thounaojam
~An incredible adventurous traveling team~
"Life is like a highway, shouldn't be too fast or slow, connect it carefully and blissfully for a successful journey".
“Highways are always built in such a way that one can always come back to the right route by taking an exit from the wrong route, take a turn and come back to the right route”.
"We need to open ourselves to life, celebrate our existence, take chances, visit people, make friends, see and explore beautiful things that surround us".
God has blessed me with a wonderful Goodwill America Tour with Eche Shanti Thokchom and her 11 years old son Raj Wilkin. ‘Eche’ is a Manipuri word that is used to address our elder sisters. We have traveled together across America on a car passing through many states (Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indianapolis, Michigan) meeting friends and their families from our homeland. On this journey, we met people from different communities, different walks of life, met old friends, and make new friends. This traveling experience has transformed us from within and gave us a new outlook to life--- motivates and inspires us to Move On…in Life--- to have Fun and Shine!
It was indeed a blessing of God that we team up for the wonderful ‘Goodwill America Tour’ and completed it without any difficulties during our journey.
I don’t know how to drive- Eche Shanti drove all the way from Tulsa to Dallas, Kansas City, St. Louis, Wheeling, City of Franklin, and to Grand Rapids. I was the helper and navigator of the tour, filling gas at the stations, buying coffees and foods, and looking for exit and road signs. She had traveled almost very state of America except Alaska, Hawaii and some other states in the corners. During our travel, I found that she really had a very good knowledge of US roadways and travel without GPS. But she used maps and did homework of every route before we started every journey.
She had calm mind while driving and did not show any sign of nervousness even when we took wrong routes or exits and when our car break down. There is one thing that I will always remember in my life- She said “Roadways are always build in such a way that you can always come back to the right route by taking an exit from the wrong route, take a turn and come back to the right route”.
Life is like a highway! Sometimes we may take a wrong route in life, but we can always come back to the right one by taking an exit from the wrong direction, and come back to the right route.
While traveling from a southern city of New Orleans, Louisiana up to a Northern city of Grand Rapids, Michigan- I was transforming myself during the journey watching new landscapes, facing the changing weathers, meeting new peoples, and learning about their lives. The journey gave us new horizon, new outlook and new perspective to life! We need to open ourselves to life, celebrate our existence, take chances, visit people, make friendship, see and explore the beautiful things that surround us.
~The traveling team~
Shanti Thokchom: A very strong mother living life with her principle ‘Work hard and have fun’. She works in a nursing home in Tulsa and she travels to meet friends during her free time. In this process, she had discovered most part of America traveling in her car. Her life stories are really inspiring and there are lots of things to learn from her life.
Photo caption: Raj Wilkins rushing out to check whether everything is at right place.
Raj Wilkin: This athletic dude is the son of Eche Shanti Thokchom. He also had traveled most part of parts of America with her mother, and he has become a very good traveler. Now he travels all alone from New Delhi, India to Tulsa, USA and back changing flights during the journey. He is studying in a boarding school in Patiala, Punjab, India.
Photo caption : Shanti Thokchom in New Orleans (Nov 11, 2012) .
Photo caption: V for victory- you are free to have fun any time and anywhere. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to drive, you can fill gas all along the journey and make yourself useful. The picture was taken at a gas station somewhere in Michigan on Dec 29
Umeshkanta Thounaojam: An aspiring scientist who have a soul of a rockstar, cowboy and hippie. He is a free soul who like to have fun, adventure and share joy. He love to celebrates the miracles of life, love, blessings because celebration makes soul ALIVE. He was pursuing postdoctoral training in computational neuroscience at Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans.
Eche Shanti and I are from a small place called Manipur, India bordering Myanmar. I first came to know her from E-Pao, an e-platform for Manipuri’s across the globe. She used to write regular articles called ‘Shanti Thokchom’s Life Experiences’. I was a regular reader of her articles, a big fan of her, and she is my hero. Many a times, I thought to write to her but I was not able to. One of her article about showing our homeland ‘Manipur’ at Tulsa clicked my mind, and I wrote to her for the first time in September 2008 to thank her for the high spirit. Facebook came up in the years that followed and we became facebook friends. It is hard to believe that we team up and travel on an incredible and memorable adventurous road trip together.
Last year I came to United States to pursue my postdoctoral research at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. I moved from Physics to Neuroscience and I was having a tough life with work, and a life without fun. Last November Eche came to visit me from Tulsa driving 12 hours, bringing a lots of home cooked Manipuri food (Soibum eromba, Yendem saak with bori and muka-nga, Samosas, Rajama, Kobi saabzi…). She also bring along a rice cooker too. We cooked rice and had a wonderful dinner. For the last 7 months I was surviving with fast foods and so on that day I ate like crazy….. having a good taste of the foods.
Her visit was a indeed blessing! The next day I told my friends in New Orleans that I want to buy a rice cooker. One friend Kun Qian told me that she had an extra rice cooker and I can used it. She gave it to me along with some rice, and I started cooking rice from that day. Rice is the main food in my homeland, and people used a had tough time when they didn't eat rice for a long time. On the Nov 18, 2012 evening while I was having dinner, Eche called me up and informed me that she is planning to go to Chicago with her son Raj to meet one of our common friend Shyamananda Khagembam. The date coincide with my Christmas holidays-- I told her that I want to join the trip and see parts of America. Initially she was planning to come to New Orleans with her son to visit me again. She kindly agreed and asked me to fly directly to Tulsa so that we can go visit other near places nearby.
~NOLA to WINDY CITY~
21 Dec, Friday: Fly to Tulsa from New Orleans
I flew from New Orleans, Louisiana around 7.30 pm to go to Tulsa, Oklahoma after my work. Since there was no direct flight, I flew to Dallas and changed flight for Tulsa. Dallas is a very big city. The city was well light up....I saw cars moved like ants along the highway and the night view of city during landing was breath taking.
I reached Tulsa around midnight. Eche Shanti and her son Raj came to pick me up at the airport. Raj just arrived from India two days before for his winter vacation. Since Eche Shanti is a good traveler, she knows exactly what are the interesting things at place. On the way to her home, she drove down to Tulsa city downtown and show me BOK center where many rock bands performed. We reached her home around 1 am and on the dining table I saw a heart touching warm welcome card prepared by Raj. Welcome to Tulsa KAKA UMESH! That night, I have a wonderful dinner again with rice, soibum eromba, kelli chana, rajama, and kobi saak. I had a very tight sleep that night to energized for the trip to Dallas next day.
Photo caption: Christmas gifts from Eche Shanti and her son Raj (Dec 22). A tie with design from Kuki community Manipur, 2013 motivational calender, a poster of NASCAR car, choclates, and above all a wonderful heart touching warm welcome card drawn by Raj.
Dec 22: First day of Goodwill America Tour to Dallas, Texas
We started the day with a very good breakfast. Before the journey, Raj offered a prayer to god to protect us along the journey and make it more exciting. Dallas is about 4 hours from the Tulsa and so the drive was very interesting watching the new places and their names. Oklahoma is a native Indian state and many places have with Indian names like Omulgee, Cherokee etc. There were also many beautiful ranches along the highway.
Photo caption: The start of first day of Goodwill America Tour to Dallas (Dec 22, Tulsa).
We arrived Crossroads, Texas around 4pm and met Eche Peraly Meyar and her husband Sam Meyer. She is from our homeland Komlathabi, Manipur and married to an American. We had a wonderful lunch together with sausages, Texas salad, rice and of course wine.
Photo caption: Luncheon at Eche Peraly Meyer’s place at Crossroads, Texas on Dec 22 afternoon. (Left to right: Peraly, Raj, and Eche Shanti)
Around 6pm we went to Frisco City to meet some families from our homeland. Along the way, we stopped by at a riverfront and take a walk. Our host for that night was a Tangkhul family from Ukhrul, Manipur, and we stayed at their place. Our host Ningreithan Shaiza and Lengphy Shaiza invited other families to joined us. I met Levis Shimray and her kids. She is from Thawai village, Ukhrul. I also met Mairising from Zeliang community of Manipur. The people of Manipur consist of many different ethnic communities, and it was very nice to meet various people. During that time, there was some ethnic tension in our homeland, and we prayed for peace and harmony together. On that night people from Meetei, Tangkhul, Kuki and Zeliang communities hug each other and sang together the Christmas carol ‘Joy to the world’. The night was peaceful, wonderful and there was a lot fun.
Photo caption: Singing Christmas carol ‘Joy To The World’. On this night of Dec 22, people from Meetei , Kuki, Tangkhul, Zeliang, and other communities sang Christmas carol “JOY TO THE WORLD” together at Frisco city, Texas for peace and harmony in our homeland Manipur. (Left to right: Mairising Daimai, Levis Shimray, Shanti Thokchom, Peraly Meyer, and Lenphy Shaiza).
Dec 23: Dallas City Tour
We went to see Frisco World cup City, visited FC Dallas and the Dallas Cowboys stadium at Arlington stadium. At the Dallas cowboy’s stadium, there was a football match between Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints for NFL and it indeed a very nice to see the fans cheering up their teams. From Dallas Cowboys stadium, we went to Dallas Downtown to John F. Kennedy memorial center. It was from the sixth floor of this building John Kennedy was assassinated. On our journey back to Tulsa, we stopped by the Red River that separates Texas and Tulsa and say Hello!
Dallas Cowboy’s Stadium, Arlington Dallas on Dec 23. Two American football giants Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints played for NFL on this day at the time of our visit.
Photo caption: Sunset at the Red river on Dec 23. This river separates Texas and Oklahoma.
Dec 24 -25: Christmas Eve and Christmas celebration at Tulsa, Oklahoma
On Christmas Eve Eche Shanti went to work before sunrise but before she go, she had already prepared breakfast for Raj and me. Raj and I went for run to Turkey Mountain but it was too cold that morning and we came without reaching there. In the afternoon, Raj took me for Tulsa city tour. In the evening, we attended Christmas Eve Service at Victory church and prayed. After this service, we went to attend Christmas celebration at Kuki Community Church. Tamo Seikham Thouthang is a pastor at Kuki Community Church, Tulsa. He is from New Lambulane. I met his wife Lalam Thouthang. I also met many kuki families from our homeland and spend a wonderful time. I will always carry good memories of Tamo Hegin Haokip, Eteima Hevei Haokip, Thangboi, Momon Haokip and Seiminthang Paite for their warm hospitality.
On Christmas day, I went for a 10 miles run to the Turkey Mountain. On my way one lady slow downed her car and blew horn to greet me for the run. I think she is a runner- Runners greet each other on their way! Thangboi came to pick us for a lunch at Kuki Community Church. In the afernoon Tamo Heshei Thoudang who is a pastor at International Mission Fellowship came to pick Raj and me to visit his place. We had a wonderful time at his place playing volleyball, and had a very tasty dinner. His wife Eteima Chingboi Thoudang prepared a wonderful soup-- it was so good-- I took two bowls of soup!
Photo caption: Christmas celebration at Kuki community church, Tulsa on Dec 24. Tamo Seikham Touthang who is a pastor at this church conveys the message of peace, harmony and joy to the people.
Dec 25 night: Goodwill Tour to Kansas City
On Christmas night, we went to Kansas City, Kansas to meet our friend Shunghring Hrangbung and his American friend Roger. Around midnight, we take a walk to see the Christmas lights of the city.
Photo caption: Midnight walk at the Kansas city to see the Christmas lights on Dec 25 night. Left to right: Eche Shanti, Raj, and Shunghring.
Dec 26, Wednesday: Kansas City Tour
We take a quick tour of Kansas City, visit UMKC campus and see some of the surrounding place near Nelson Atkins Museum. After that we went to see the Kansas City speedway where NASCAR car racing takes place. From Kansas City speedway, we drove to St. Louis, Missouri and say Hello to Gateway Arc.
Photo caption: University of Missouri, Kansas City on Dec 26.
Photo caption: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri on Dec 26.
Photo caption: Kansas Speedway for NASCAR racing on Dec 26.
Photo caption: Saying Hello to The Gateway Arc to the West at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis Missouri on Dec 26 evening.
Tyre puncture on the highway:
Around 6pm, we have crossed Missouri border and reached Illinois. We were heading towards Chicago to meet our friend Shyamananda Khangebam, my school senior Dominique Angom, and Dhaneswor Waikhom. After passing Bloomington around 11pm and we have a flat tyre on the highway towards Wheeling. Weather was good that night-It was a starry night with cold winds and we did not face much difficulty. We called up our insurance service. Help came up very quickly, got replaced the tyre, and we are back on the highway.
Photo caption: Flat tire on a highway to Chicago on Dec 26 night after passing Bloomington city, ILLONIS.
Dec 27: Goodwill trip to City of Franklin, Wisconsin
We thank God for protecting us along our journey. We arrived at Dominique Angom place safely at Wheeling around 3am in the morning of Dec 27. Bro Dom was my school senior and we are meeting again after long 16 years!
Photo caption: Life is a celebration. Be happy and attract happiness in life. (Left to right) Eche Shanti, Raj and Bro Dom. Bro Dom wear a tie and shawl with design from Kuki community. That was a Christmas present from Eche Shanti.
Eche Shanti’s son Raj study in a school at Patiala, Punjab, India. He has a good friend called Ompreet from his school. Ompreet’s parents live at the City of Franklin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He and grandmother came to visit their family during his winter vacation. Since we are in Chicago, we went to visit Ompreet’s family. That day we picked our friend Shyamananda Khagembam, went to the airport to change a new car, and headed to city of Franklin, Wisconsin.
Photo caption: With Shyamananda at O’Hare airport, Chicago on Dec 27.
The drive to City of Franklin was about one and half drive from bro Dom’s place. The weather was cold there and it was full of snow. We had a very good time at Ompreet’s family. The samosas, gulap jamun, burfi, and chai was so good. We returned back in the evening and had a very good dinner with few of our closed friends who stay nearby. We had a lot of fun recalling stories of childhood memories. Times goes by so quickly, and we wish if we could rewind it.
Photo caption: Goodwill tour to City of Franklin, Wisconsin on Dec 27. Left to right: Ompreet’s dad, Ompreet, Raj, Ompreet’s mom, Ompreet’s sister, Eche Shanti Thokchom, and Ompreet’s grandma.
Dec 28: Goodwill trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan
Our goodwill trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan was to meet a Manipuri scientist Yendrenbam Sangeeta Devi who is working at Michigan State University. We started from Wheeling, Illinois around 11 am and it takes about 5 hours to reach to Grand Rapids, Michigan. The state changed its name to Pure Michigan because of its pure natural beauty. We get totally new feeling when we drive inside pure Michigan State. There was fresh beautiful snow along the roads and green pine trees stand tall- the journey was very refreshing and awesome. Before reaching Grand Rapids, there is a small beautiful city called St. Joseph beside Lake Michigan. So we take an exit to visit see this city for while and say Hello to Lake Michigan. We reached Sangeeta’s place at Grand Rapids in the evening. She prepared tea and offered us- It was really awesome. After a while we had a very good dinner with eromba, rice, and chicken briyani. We played Ludo, danced Bhangra and had a wonderful time together.
Photo caption: We say Hello to New Buffalo welcome center, Pure Michigan on Dec 28.
Photo caption: Lake Michigan in background at St. Joseph city, Pure Michigan
Photo caption: Tea drinking ceremony at Grand Rapids, Pure Michigan on Dec 28. Left to right : Eche Shanti Thokchom with Sangeeta Yendrenbam
Dec 29: Goodwill gathering at Elgin, ILLIONIS
On the morning of Dec 29, we started our journey back to Wheeling, IL from Grand Rapids, MI. The weather god was kind to us and there was little slight snowfall during our journey back. We stopped at Harley Davidson motorcycle store in Indianapolis, visited wine St. Julian winery, Michigan and play with snow at an Apple Barn along the way. In the evening Tamo Hori and Eteima Indu invited us, Tamo Raj and Eteima Priya’s family and also Tamo Indi and Eteima Mily’s family. And, we had a warm gathering at Tamo Hori’s place.
Photo caption: Meeting fellow sisters and Eteima’s at Elgin, Illinois on Dec 29. (Left to right) Shanti Thokchom, Milly Singh, Eteima Priya’s daughter, Eteima Priya, and Eteima Indu.
Photo caption: The Goodwill gathering hoisted by Tamo Hori and Eteima Indu at Elgin, Illinois on Dec 29. (Left to right) Tamo Hori, Tamo Raj, Tamo Indi, Eteima Mily, Eteima Priya, Eteima Priya’s daughter, Sandeep, Bro Dom, Eche Shanti, and Umesh.
Dec 30: Eche Shanti and Raj returns back to Tulsa
On the Sunday morning, Dec 30, Eche Shanti and Raj had to return back to Tulsa. The drive was about 10 hours from Wheeling. Bro Dom cooked some Yummy Kecheri ( rice and lentils).
Photo caption: Bro Dom cooked yummy Kechri, salad and prepared papad in the early morning of Dec 30 for Eche Shanti and Raj so that they can had it for lunch during the journey back to Tulsa from Wheeling.
Photo caption: Saying Goodbye to Eche Shanti and Raj. Left to right: Sandeep, Dhaneshwar, Bro Dom, and Eche Shanti inside the car.
Eche Shanti and Raj getting ready for her journey back to Tulsa from Wheeling on Dec 30 morning.
Photo caption: At the cloud gate, Millennium park Chicago on Dec 30 night.
Dec 31, Morning run around icy lake Arlington and New Year’s Day Eve Party
I found a running companion Bro Dom. On Dec 31st morning, we wake up 5am and went to lake Arlington, and ran 5.69 miles together before sunrise. We had fun and enjoyed the run.
Photo caption: Morning run around frozen lake Arlington. The last run we ran together was together was the morning PT at our school Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Khumbong, Imphal about 18 years ago.
Photo caption: We rocked the New Year’s Day Eve Party. (Left to right ) Bro Dom and Dhaneshwar.
Jan 1 New Year’s Day: 7 miles run and fly back to New Orleans from Chicago
On New Year’s day, I had a good run with brother Dom and we ran through sunshine in open field and through snow in deep forest. When we were thirsty, we make snow ice creams and ate them. The only thing that we missed doing was the swim in an icy lake. The run was full of fun, and we had a good conversation about life and I have learned many things from him. After the run we had a wonderful dinner. He dropped me at the O’Hare airport and I returned back safely to New Orleans completing a wonderful Goodwill America. The tour was a God’s blessing and life changing experiences!!!
Photo caption: Bro Dom doing a Bolt salute after during a run at Potawatomi Woods Preserve, Wheeling, IL.
Photo caption: Picking some fresh snow to make some ice creams on New Year’s day.
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