Katie is an extraordinary child (like all of our kids!) who was so enamored of her family’s safari last March that in her French class she accidentally answered in Swahili. When I heard this I knew I wanted to know more. Wait until you hear about her favorite hobby in this interview:

How old are you / what grade in school? 12 years old, and in the 7th grade

What is your favorite travel moment? Passing out playground equipment to orphans & school children in Tanzania.

What have you learned from traveling? That not everybody lives the way we do in America. You have to be flexible about things like food, showers, schedules, transportation and other amenities we take for granted. When you travel, some experiences are good & some are not, but from them all, you learn something new about the people with whom we share our world.

What is your favorite hobby and why? In my room, I have constructed a town made from lunchbags. The people are made from popsickle sticks and milk lids and have names that are common to a particular country. My neighborhoods are culturally diverse and the shops and other buildings reflect what you might find in a particular geographic region. I get inspired to add new neighborhoods from books, movies, or meeting new people, This is a fun hobby because it doesn’t require batteries, allows you to be creative, and you have total control of the whole town. I don’t have any leftover space on my floor anymore, so I just have to build up; that’s how I came to add “Mount Olympus” to the town. I also like building houses on Google Sketch-Up.

What do you want to be/do when you grow up?? A missionary

Anything else you want us to know about you? In my lifetime, I want to travel to all 7 continents. I have 4 to go.

For some great scenes of Katie and her visits to the orphanage and Ayalabe School: