THIS week finds me in a pretty remote spot in southern Madagascar, currently fighting a significant number of flies who pervade every aspect of life, including when you are typing.

As you would expect, at the end of summer, its hot, with the temperature over 30 degrees during the day and not dropping below 20 degrees at night.

There has been significant rain this summer and even in the semi-arid south there's more green than usual - in fact, the gravel airstrip we fly into is completely covered in grass.

We flew down from the capital, Antananarivo (thankfully abbreviated to Tana) down the Central Highlands and it looked amazing. Every river valley is full of terraced padi fields growing to staple crop of rice which at present is an emerald green grass.

However, where we are, it's a much drier climate and the vegetation is dominated by scrubby bushes and rough grazing. It’s green as this year’s rains are really good and so there is lots grazing and crops, maize, peanuts and cassava are flourishing.

We drove over to a nearby small town and on the way went through a small village where a local market was taking place. The tracks approaching the village were crammed with people bringing in goats, cows, calves, ducks and vegetables for sale.

It struck me how similar it was to a market in Cornwall, in that people had come from miles around and there was a clear feeling of excitement in the air. People were standing around chatting, running an expert eye over the livestock, catching up with friends and enjoying produce from street traders.

It just goes to show that, even halfway round the world, people really aren't so different, and a local event such as a market has just the same as it is in Cornwall or Canada. Except, here it's 35 degrees!