Back in Andava

Well, I'm back on site after two weeks away. It was quite an epic journey to get back. A one-hour delay in Manchester airport meant that I finally arrived in Tana, Madagascar 24 hours late.
Air France were all "it's not our responsibility" and rerouted me via Reunion, leaving me with a 10 hour wait in Paris, 10 hours in Reunion and an extra flight from Reunion to Tana.
Ridiculous. At least it wasn't too much of a palava once in Madagascar. My little plane left Tana on Friday after only a short delay. The twin-engine otter plane flies pretty low and the views of Madagascar below were pretty spectacular. Tall baobab trees tower over the pastel green scrub forests.
These baobabs, unlike the ones near us in Andava have thin, silver trunks which, like all baobabs, are naked. Just their green bushy heads stretching outwards and upwards begging for the sunlight. They're mostly singly dotted around the forest, or there are small patches of them where they meet to converse. It's cliched to call them majestic, but looking down from the plane, that's how they appear, giants of the arboral kingdom, gazing down at the forest below them.
As we flew over the sea, there was a lone white pirogue sail, looking like a tiny handkerchief dropped onto the sea.
I was glad to be back. Nothing too amiss appears to have occurred during my absence. Whale watching has begun, though no whales sighted as yet. We're also sending out volunteers to stay up all night guarding the turtle nest in a village called Lamboara. But as yet, no baby turtles have emerged. Soon, we hope. Fingers' crossed.

Previously I've written a lot about how different Andavadoaka is compared to home, and now after having spent 10 days back home in the UK, I've also come up with a few observations about what is different about the UK compared to here. Here are a few of them:

There are a lot more old people around. This thought did come to me while I was in M&S however!
In fact, it's noticeable that they actually are some old people.
There aren't many children around in comparison.
It's highly possible that the ratio of children to adults and 'old people' to adults is reversed with a ten to one ratio in Andava in favour of children and possibly the same in reverse for old people in the UK.
I also noticed that people are a lot fatter in the UK than they are here.

Of course, I also noticed lots of other, more expected things - such as the level of advertising around and how much crap telly there seemed to be. And the fact that the world is going to hell in a handbasket - something that you just don't hear about here by virtue of the fact that there's no tv or radio or newspapers. I definitely have to admit that it's much less stressful to live in ignorance. Preferably forced ignorance like here as I managed to get angry at least half a dozen times while listening to the news or glimpsing a newspaper.
I also noticed that people aren't very good at Be ing on public transport. They aren't yet at the stage where they'll talk to each other. Instead they'll talk on their mobile phones, play games on them or listen to music on headphones. Anything, in fact, rather than having to talk to the people around them or to sit in silence alone. Anything really, rather than just sitting and 'be-ing'. This is a stark contrast to what it's like sitting on a pirogue for four hours where you can do nothing BUT be. Of course this may be because it's preferable to look out at the sea than it is to look out at Upper Chorlton Road but the train journey from London to Manchester really isn't THAT bad.
Finally, it seems to me that people laugh less in the UK than they seem to here. They also don't smile as much at each other. And despite (or maybe because) having satellite television, an abundance of available fruit and vegetables, breakfast cereal, fairtrade chocolate, microwaves, fresh juice bars, mobile phones, digital watches (hello Douglas Adams), reality television, celebrity magazines, New Scientist, Starbucks, chocolate cake,
Sex in the City, shoe shops, shoes, crap films, 24 hour news channels, fast food and faster cars... People just don't seem particularly happy. Or if they are, they just keep it well-hidden. I'm not the first person to have observed this. I won't be the last. And I'll sign off this week with this well-worn cliche - is it so preferable to have all this stuff? Is giving up smiling at strangers and not-laughing the price we have to pay for it? Which is really the richer society? The one which can laugh and smile through life, or the miserable one with all the stuff? And if I'm concluding all this, why then do I still look forward to getting back to Manchester at the end of my stay here, rather than jacking it all in and living permanently in this little village by the sea? Answers on the back of a postcard....