print $object->countries; I get back: HASH(0x559dd38dad20)HASH(0x559dd378be08) ...

Looks to me like that method call is returning a list of hashrefs, because print provides list context to its arguments, and it's not putting any whitespace in between the arguments ($,). In other words, if you do my @countries = $object->countries;, I think you should get an array of hashes. See perldsc for some examples of how to work with such data structures.

BTW, you never mention what module this is, or what your Data::Dumper output looks like; both of which would allow us to give you the definitive answer to "I'd like to know what it is that I have on my hands." My answer above is an educated guess, but for the best help, please provide as much information as possible, best is always an SSCCE.