Meet Asha and Khef (🇺🇸)

Please introduce yourself; who are you, where are you from, where are you currently, and what do you do for a living/currently? Please include the kids’ ages on departure day.

My name is Asha and my son’s name is Khef (rhymes with chef or Jeff). He will be turning 2 on the trip next year. I am from New York City but recently moved to  Arkansas where my mom and brother’s family live. I am a touring musician and play violin/electric violin. I was trained classically but play mostly rock now.

Why did you decide to get involved in this project?

I have been extremely interested in homeschooling/worldschooling ever since my nephews were little. They were homeschooled on and off and it was inspiring to see all the adventures and activities they were doing at “home” and how much they loved to learn. Now that I have a one-year-old, I have been exploring different ways of educating him and I love the concept of worldschooling. I have been an avid traveler for years and I would love for my little one to be exposed to cultures and learn through the unique experiences that traveling offers. I am used to traveling alone and wasn’t quite sure how to travel with an infant by myself, so when I saw this opportunity online late one night, I thought it seemed like the most perfect way to try it out with the safety and support of a built-in community.

What kind of interests do you have?

I went to film school years ago to learn to edit, so when I travel I enjoy taking travel videos (mostly so I can remember what I did!). I have 2 dogs and I’ve done a lot of dog training (not professionally). I enjoy all kinds of music, listening to podcasts, vegan food, hiking, and anything active. And of course, I love traveling, learning new skills, and pushing myself out of my comfort zone — my most memorable trips have been mountain biking in Nepal, learning Muay Thai intensively in Thailand, exploring the underground tunnels in Ukraine, learning salsa intensively in Cali, Colombia, and learning daily gratitude in Bali. When I got back from that trip, I got a dog and even named him Bali! I meditate fairly regularly and have done eight 10-day Vipassana silent meditations which completely changed my life.

Tell us some interesting random facts about you guys. Don’t hold back, this is your time to shine 🙂

I am a single mom by choice…I decided that if I hadn’t met a partner by age 40, I would try and have a child on my own. After many ups and downs, I finally had my baby through a surrogate. I just found out that my son has 17 half-siblings through the same donor and we are all in touch! I live in a tiny house in Arkansas — it was actually built for the TV series called “Tiny House Nation” and it looks like a gigantic Marshall Amplifier. One of my absolute favorite jobs that I had for 10 years before Covid happened was as a travel host for Viator and Trip Advisor – that’s how I did most of my traveling and got to see a lot of the world.

Another random fact is that I had breast cancer at age 24. The only reason I mention this is because it shaped who I am and changed the course of my life overnight — before that, I was stuck in a corporate job that I didn’t like, and during that experience, I decided to leave the corporate world and pursue a career as a musician, something I had always wanted to do but was too scared to do and to travel the world and see everything I could. From that moment on, I try to push myself whenever I can, realizing that the most important thing for me in life is to create meaningful experiences.

What do you think will be the most difficult about this experiment?

I’ve never traveled for such a long period and I’ve never traveled for more than 2 weeks with my child. So I am sure there will be lots of challenges that come with that.

What kind of work groups or projects would you be excited about joining on the trip?

I would love to work with the documentary group, organizing adventures, joining exercise/yoga groups, and a parent group to talk about education-conscious parenting.

Will you be working while we are traveling?

Luckily this trip is happening during the off-season of my tour schedule, but I have a part-time job that I will be doing remotely.

What do you hope to learn or take away from joining this experiment?

I’m most excited to be able to meet so many other people who share a similar vision of raising children and views on life and I hope it will lead to lifelong friendships.