The Goodall Family

Simon Goodall and his wife Carolina are globetrotters. Their adventures include backpacking across Russia, Mongolia and China, farming in New Zealand and Australia, and traveling across Argentina in a motor-home. They’ve also traveled by water, delivering yachts between ports in South America and the Caribbean. They’ve even sailed along Cape Horn to Antarctica.

Along the way, an offline version of Wikipedia through offline browser Kiwix has been more than a trusty guide—it is a part of the family.

“When speaking about Kiwix and Wikipedia, it has been mainly about how many times we’ve had queries that have been answered on the spot because of this availability of information,” Simon says.

The Goodalls have three children: ten-year-old Sarah, eight-year-old Emma, and six-year-old Clara. The children have been a part of the couple’s journey in their boat, Kyrimba. “Sailing in the Pacific came as part of a continuum, a stage in life when the girls are the right age to absorb what the world has to offer: cultures, places, ways of life and the ability to travel together as a family,” Simon explains.

Sarah uses Wikipedia in conjunction with her school readings…Emma uses it frequently to identify everything from volcanoes to exotic fish species.

The family has been chronicling their adventures on their website, and say that using Wikipedia has been an integral part of their journey.

Sarah uses Wikipedia in conjunction with her school readings to discover more about subjects that fascinate her in the books that she reads and in real life. She loves looking up stories from Greek mythology and fueling her interest in natural medicine by reading about herbs. Emma uses it frequently to identify everything from volcanoes to exotic fish species.

In fact, whenever the Goodalls eat fish they made Kiwix a part of their routine to identify the fish before prepping it for consumption. “We’ve used it to look up specific fish to see if it was mentioned for eating raw, like sushi or sashimi…It’s not like you put a label on the hook that says, ‘tuna or mackerel only, we would like to eat [them] for sashimi’,” says Simon.

Simon says that even repair tasks can be made easier with Kiwix, and the family as a whole enjoys learning about the places they have visited or plan on visiting.

“Let’s ask Kiwix the answer!” has become a part of the Goodalls’ vernacular.