Pope Francis visits Myanmar November 27 - 30. It is the first visit by a Pope to the overwhelmingly Buddhist country. Myanmar's small Catholic community (about 1% of the population) is planning an elaborate welcome. These pictures were made during Sunday mass in Hwambi, a community about 90 minutes north of Yangon.

The citizens of Myanmar voted Sunday, Nov. 8, in their fullest, most free and competitive elections in more than 50 years.

Burmese election campaigning ended the evening of Friday Nov. 6 ahead of Sunday's vote. Under the election rules, Saturday is a "quiet" day, so voters can consider their choices and the decisions they'll face Sunday.

More than 40,000 people came out to a dusty field in the Yangon suburbs to hear democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi deliver the last speech of her 2015 election campaign. It was the largest rally, by any party, in the Myanmar election campaign.

The Thadingyut Festival, the Lighting Festival of Myanmar, is held on the full moon day of the Burmese Lunar month of Thadingyut, either October or November. As a custom, it is held at the end of the Buddhist lent (Vassa). Thadingyut festival is the celebration to welcome the Buddha’s descent from heaven.

Sectarian violence devastated Rohingya communities in and around Sittwe, Myanmar, and left hundreds of Rohingya dead in 2012, the government of Myanmar forced more than 140,000 Rohingya Muslims who used to live in and around Sittwe, Myanmar, into squalid Internal Displaced Persons camps. The government says the Rohingya are not Burmese citizens, that they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government says the Rohingya are Burmese and the Rohingya insist that they have lived in Burma for generations. The camps are about 20 minutes from Sittwe but the Rohingya who live in the camps are not allowed to leave without government permission. They are not allowed to work outside the camps, they are not allowed to go to Sittwe to use the hospital, go to school or do business. The camps have no electricity. Water is delivered through community wells. There are small schools funded by NOGs in the camps and a few private clinics but medical care is costly and not reliable.

Burmese Shia Muslims observed the holy day of Ashura. Ashura commemorates the death of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammed, in the 7th century. Hussein ibn Ali is considered by Shia Muslims to be the third imam and the rightful successor of Muhammed. He was killed at the Battle of Karbala in 610 CE on the 10th day of Muharram.

Twante, about 20 miles from Yangon, is best known for its traditional pottery. The pottery makers are struggling to keep workers in their sheds though. As Myanmar opens up to outside investments and its economy expands, young people are moving to Yangon to take jobs in the better paying tourist industry or in the factories that are springing up around Yangon.

A few photos from morning in the Ayeyarwady (also spelled Irrawaddy) River Delta.

Yangon, formerly Rangoon, has the largest concentration of colonial style buildings still standing in Asia. Because Myanmar (Burma) was so isolated for so long most of the buildings have fallen into disrepair. Some have been taken over by squatters. Still, a preservation movement has started and efforts are being made to catalog and renovate some of the architectural gems.

Schwedagon Pagoda is the most important religious site in Myanmar. It's 99 meter tall gilded gold spire towers over the city of Yangon and is visible from almost every corner of Yangon. Thousands of Burmese visit the pagoda every day to pray and make merit. Burmese believe Schwedagon was built in 587BC, making it more than 2,600 years old. It is the oldest religious structure in the world and probably the oldest continuously inhabited building in the world.

The Yangon Circular Train is a slow train to everywhere (in Yangon). It takes about three hours to complete its route around Yangon. It passes through the city center, through slums and markets and through the Burmese countryside. Tens of thousands of people ride the train every day, paying just pennies for their tickets.

Up until World War II, the British colony of Burma, now Myanmar, was the leading rice exporter in the world. The war years devastated Burma as it became one of the most bitterly fought battlegrounds between the Axis and Allied powers. The Burmese economy never recovered from the war. Independence led to a series of insurgencies against the central government in Rangoon (then the capital of Burma). The insurgencies led to a military coup, 50 years of dictatorship and economic mismanagement as Burma went down a quixotic "Burmese path to socialism." By the mid 1990s, the Burmese rice economy was a wreck and a country that once fed the world could no longer feed itself and Burma was a net rice importer. That was then. In just a few short years, since the political and economic reforms started Burmese rice output has skyrocketed and Burma (now Myanmar) is once again a rice exporter. By the end of 2014, Myanmar plans to rival to India, Vietnam and Thailand as a rice exporter and has intentions of reclaiming the rice export crown by 2015. These photos were made on rice farms in the Irrawaddy Delta west of Yangon (Rangoon). The Delta was once, and plans to be again, the "rice bowl" of Myanmar.

The Yangon-Dala Ferry crosses the Yangon (Rangoon) River continuously through the day. There are no bridges across the river to Dala, the ferry by far the quickest (and cheapest) way to get from Dala, a working class town opposite Yangon, into the city.

Yangon has a massive bus system that criss-crosses the city and costs just pennies to ride. The buses move tens of thousands of people across the city every day. Most of the buses are dilapidated relics from Japan or Korea. Myanmar drives on the right hand side of the road, but many of the buses are second (or third) hand from countries that drive on the left and doors are on the left. Bus companies in Yangon cut holes in the right side of the bus and put home made doors on the buses. Some of the buses have "co-pilots" to tell the driver what's coming at them (because drivers sitting behind the wheel on the right can't see oncoming traffic on the left). It's all a part of what makes Myanmar's awakening the unique experience that it is.