Next steps

So, now we have our first choice, we've been learning more about the country and stating to plan our first visit there to begin identifying possible locations and opportunities. It has been an interseting way to proceed with our big dream. Most people who set these kinds of projects up tend to do so after they have visited a place and for some reason, feel attached to it. We wanted to try and be more objective about it - especially as we have visited many different countries, and seen many kinds of organizations in action - including the pitfalls and problems. So our approach was more to determine not only where, but how - the feasibility, the safety, the immigration and red tape aspects..... and now we get to have a little fun.
So, while we are off to Florida to have some R and R with mum and dad, we are starting to look at when we will go to the Dominican Republic - this year definitely, and hopefully soon. Our first visit will be just a short trip to look at the possibilities on the ground level, and to figure out our next steps. We have also been developing a business plan, and want to have that really polished before we go.
So that's where we're at .... and now off to Florida and Mickey and marathons ... and a trip to Hudson to see where Andy used to live...

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"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination" (Oscar Wilde)

And the pick is.........

Having narrowed down our choices to the final nine countries, we were at a loss as to how to move forward. All things weighed together, these nine came out fairly equal according to the criteria we value. It was time to seek some guidance from the Universe.

At first, we couldn’t figure out why we were being directed to Puerto Rico … it’s not particularly needy… it certainly isn’t on our list. Then we realized, Puerto Rico is right next door to Dominican Republic. Should we ever need to, we could actually base ourselves here, Puerto Rico being a U.S. territory. It began to make sense, and since that connection, all things point to Dominican Republic.

We don’t know if this will be the location of our charity, but we do know we have been directed there, so the next step is to look at the Dominican Republic in more detail and plan a trip there to research the possibilities more thoroughly.

We are very excited!

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“The time is always right to do what is right.” (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)

Vanuatu to Madagascar and a few places in between

Oh it’s hard work here … but exciting too. We are researching and studying every day to move our dream project forward. From learning about individual countries, to understanding immigration and business laws, and to dreaming of the possibilities. We thought that each week we’d explain a little more about our process and what is happening. Today … the countries. We are down to 9 now, from an initial list of over 160….

Our first criteria was to identify all the possibilities and not just limit it to countries we had heard of or visited. Using criteria such as the Human Development Index and Gross Domestic Product, we identified all countries that are considered as developing (versus developed). Next, we used broad criteria to narrow the field down – so we looked at how easy it is to obtain visas, disparities between wealth and poverty, safety, access to healthcare, attitudes to homosexuality (gay people are put to death still in a number of countries …), cost of living, and presence of tourism (for needed funds for the project).

This brought the list down to a possible 49! Still a way to go, so more in-depth research was called for, and narrowing the list down to 16 definite candidates . This list has been our focus this week. Time to use more stringent guidelines, including desirability to us – as we may be there for extended times eventually. So here are the final nine based on all of these (and some more) criteria:
Cape Verde Islands, Vanuatu, Madagascar, Vietnam, Namibia, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Panama and South Africa.
Quite a list! And quite a lot of difference between them. Some are higher in our rankings than others, and we hope to narrow it down to the final two or three in the next few days. And then comes the fun part – we would next visit the first choice and see!

Juggling this around our upcoming trip to meet up with Andy’s mum and dad in Florida, a trip to Vancouver to see the Winter Olympics, a trip down to California in the spring, and the plan to go and teach in Nepal ….. we hope we can make it all come together ….. Stay tuned!

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“When your heart speaks, take good notes.” (Judith Campbell)

Our Big Plans

As promised, here are our plans for the coming year. We are in the process of developing a charity business venture. As most of us know, the balance of power and wealth in this world is unequal. We want to do our part to help equalize this imbalance through providing training, employment, and education for disadvantaged people in a developing nation. We plan to achieve this through the founding of an uncommon community center in a developing country that will offer free to low cost therapy, English language learning classes, community resources and education, as well as providing employment and work skills training through the project’s coffee shop and bed and breakfast.

We have been hard at work developing a business plan, establishing priorities and goals, and researching resources and potential locations. From a possible 160 plus countries, we have narrowed the possibilities down to 16. We are currently narrowing this down further to our top 3 picks. We’ll talk more about that process, the countries, and our criteria next blog.

We have also been in contact with Seeing Hands and have been invited back this year. We are hoping this will fit in with our commitments to our project as we would love to go back. Over the next week or so we’ll have to make some decisions.

On a lighter note, our friend, Gina, came up from California, and she and Andy opened up a time capsule from 10 years ago. Included in the contents were letters written 10 years ago to our future selves.
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“Of different stripes, we dance as one, in a celebration of unity and joy!” (Unknown)

New Year

Happy New Year
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"And now let us welcome the new year - full of things that have never been"
Rainer Maria Rilke


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"Be the change you wish to see in the world..."
Gandhi

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New year ... new start ... new opportunities ...