SALAMA, LOVELY FRIENDS!

We are now on the other side of the planet, filming another episode for Caught in the Moment. We’re in a magical place far different from anywhere I've ever been …

Madagascar's Jîro ("light" in Malagasy) seems different — like a magical color lamp — lighting the world from shades of freshwater blue to vanilla gold to coral pink. Isn’t this the same sun that rises and sets all over the world?!

It is lovely to come to a place where time seems to have stood still: a place where people enjoy time and are truly "caught in the moment," to treasure the texture of a shell and the splash of the surf; where they can stop and watch a chameleon for hours as its eyes twitch every which way.

The colors of Madagascar are a mix of muted tones of thousands of grains of sand brushing against washed-up deadwood and the soft red silt of slow-flowing rivers to the bright beacon yellow exclamations of colored boats and batiks.

What a strange and wonderful land — to step back and look, to admire life, to listen, and most of all to wonder and wander through the maze of evolution.

I think of endemic — what a word! — lemurs and aye-ayes to spiny forests and baobabs; it’s a myriad of species from nowhere but here.

So, I wrote a song for the little Malagasy kids, and I sang (to the tune of "Ring Around the Rosy"), as we all spun in circles on the red dirt.

Ring around the tails-ies

Ocean full of sails-ies

Spiny trees, baobabs

They all fall down

Truth be told, the spiny forests of Madagascar are being slashed and burned to create space for sisal (cactus) farms, which on one hand is one of the biggest exports of the Malagasy, but on the other is causing intense loss of habitat for creatures found nowhere else. The other conflict: These forests hold amazing "miracle cure" plants that may be some of the most effective drugs for fighting cancer. Without the forests intact, we lose species, medical cures and above all, the endemic habitat of this amazing island.

Just some thoughts as we travel around in a brand-new world …

What a gift to be of this country called Madagascar!