Madagascar rates 148 on the UN World Happiness Survey. For me I would rate Madagascar as number one on Happiness, which is why I choose to live here for 15 years. If I need to travel back to the USA, I feel like a stranger in my own country and always happy to come back home in Madagascar.
I found Madagascar in 2002 after crisscrossing the globe for 20 years. I came here as a traveler with no preconceived ideas meaning not as a missionary or NGO worker and being schooled as to what to expect.
For an expat, it is inexpensive to live here. I enjoy a great sense of freedom and independence. There is not much government interference in daily life. I view governments as parents for adults and first world countries have an over abundance of rules and regulations for it citizens. Happiness for me comes in the form of a stress free lifestyle, wonderful tasty food, not seeing fast food places, shopping malls trashing the environment. I like the idea of stores closing their doors for rest in the afternoon, giving a slow down pace of lifestyle.
People here are for the most part happy and very social, with hellos and smiles and giving a sense of a good community as we watch out for each others health and safety. So there is a very calm and tranquille feeling. There are so many good reasons to live here in Madagascar and one of them is self reliance of getting a job done which requires doing research and doing your homework thus getting a positive result. Life style here is simple, so wanting and getting anything more than the basics requires self-education.
The air is fresh, the weather is balmy warm. So now I am going to pick a couple of sweet mangoes off my tree for breakfast. Veloma
