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)
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I'm very excited to hear about your possible business venture. It sounds like a very good idea & would do a world of good. I like your methodical way of picking out a country to help. I think all of those countries could definitely use some help. You 2 sure have a whole lot going on! The winter olympics sure sounds fun. Kick ass on your half marathon!
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