Connecting the World: 200 Lives, 200 Stories is a journey where I will visit every country by staying at a local’s home with whom I am connected to through 6 degrees of separation. This website has been created to present my hosts local lives and the story's they tell.
How will I go about this?
In each UN sanctioned country, I will stay with a person or family with whom I am connected through six degrees of separation. The criteria is that the host will have to be a native citizen of that particular country and are willing to host me for a minimum of 24 hours. Throughout my stay, I will learn and document all I can about their life in their particular country or region.
What am I hoping to attain through my endeavors?
I hope this documented journey will help promote cultural awareness through global connectivity. While many people gain a slight understanding of countries that are popularized through the media and entertainment, even for the well traveled, there are many places that are not very well known. By using native hosts, I will be able to present their lives and stories as examples to show the uniqueness and similarities of cultures worldwide. I would also like to provide entertaining as well as educational material. I have found that while it is easy to find cultural statistics about populations living in various countries, a daily account of somebodies life is much more interesting and difficult to find. What form of transportation do people use and why? How do they heat or cool their living quarters? Do they eat local home-cooked foods or international foods in restaurants? How sustainable do they live? This production will not only be a glimpse into the daily culture of people in various countries, but it will allow viewers to understand more deeply the environmental and cultural influences that have shaped their lives.
Finally, I want to prove that this can be done. Yes, there have been a few people who have traveled to every country. But nobody has connected the world like this before.