The saying "Bermuda is another world" has taken on a new meaning for 17-year-old Chantel Barnshaw.

Chantel recently took part in a Habitat for Humanity mission in Mexico and a school exchange programme in Thailand and said the experiences have changed the way she sees her life in Bermuda.

Habitat for Humanity is a charity that sends volunteers to underprivileged areas and countries to help in building and renovating homes for needy families.

"We had originally planned to go to Argentina for the Habitat for Humanity mission but we got a call at the night before saying that the trip was cancelled because the airport in Argentina was closed due to swine flu," she said.

"At the last minute we ended up going to Mexico. We were building a house in a little town in the middle of nowhere for a lady and her son. My team was responsible for building the foundations of the house.

"The experience was life changing. It changed the way I see things. Some people get upset when they don't get what they want for Christmas, but these people had nothing. It felt good to help them and build them a whole new house."

In addition to her work with Habitat for Humanity, Chantel participated in an exchange programme called Roundsquare through her school.

Roundsquare is an organisation of more than 70 schools from around the world that focuses on experiential learning.

As the local representative for Roundsquare, her school Bermuda High School takes part in exchanges where students spend several weeks living and studying in countries they may never get to visit otherwise.

"I asked the Roundsquare coordinator at BHS if I could take part in an exchange as it something that I have wanted to do for a while," she said. "I had really wanted to visit somewhere in Asia and when I saw that they had a participating, English-speaking school in Pattaya, Thailand, called the Regent School."

According to Chantel, BHS already had a good relationship with the Regent School.

"The coordinator thought that Regent would be a good school to pick because BHS had helped rebuild it after the tsunami hit it a few years ago."

Although she says that it took some time to adjust to the hot temperatures, the experiences she had, the relationships she built and the friendships she made during her three-week stay allowed her to forget about the heat.

"I got to ride an elephant and that was something that I really wanted to do in Thailand," she said. "I was also able to spend a few weekends at the homes of Thai friends that I made and by doing that I was able to experience their culture.

"But it was a huge culture shock when I got to Thailand because there were so many people that have so much less than what I am used to,' she said. "It made me realise how lucky I am to be from somewhere like Bermuda where we have so much."

Chantel is also an aspiring actor and recently played the role of Petruchio in a production of William Shakespeare's 'The Taming of The Shrew' for the International Shakespeare Festival.

"We had to really push ourselves to get ready for the Shakespeare Festival," she said. "We only started rehearsing for it in September and the production was in October. While it was a lot of work, it was the first time that I had played a major role and it really made me feel a lot more comfortable on stage."

Additionally Chantel has been in several school productions, does ballet, volunteers as a Candy Striper at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and is a peer mentor at her school.

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