This post is part of a series called The 2013 L'Aquila Earthquake L’AQUILA, Italy–The fire chief was waiting for us at the security gate to the hilltop old town center. He assigned a fireman to drive and escort us through this abandoned city. I found the Italian people to be extremely friendly and helpful even under such extreme conditions. The three of us got into the fireman’s four wheel drive truck and up the hill we went. I asked him to stop the truck when I saw the destroyed building. It was a nightmare. This was a total collapse of…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Myanmar YANGON, Myanmar–We flew from Bangkok to Yangon, Myanmar on Monday morning. Once there we were greeted by Twe Twe and Nang. They took us to lunch before visiting the Myanmar Engineering Society. We stopped at a local place, they let me sample the goat brains to see if I would like it as my main course. It seemed every meal we had during this trip was accompanied with mango, which was great for an avid fruit eater like myself. The mango I had today was sweet and had hints…