Bermuda College student Zaire Lowe cried the first time she saw a real elephant.

It was one of the many moving experiences the 19-year-old had while spending six months touring with the Up With People group.

Up With People is a travel and cultural immersion programme for young people. Up With People participants travel the world while performing in music and dance shows, doing educational workshops and community service projects.

With Up With People Miss Lowe visited the United States, Mexico and Thailand. She was with 110 others from 26 different countries. She was the only Bermudian.

"In Thailand, I actually got to ride an elephant," said Miss Lowe. "I started crying because I was so excited. I had never seen something like that before. I was like 'oh my gosh it's an elephant'.

Miss Lowe learned about Up With People through a cousin who went with Up With People in 2000.

"After I finished at the Berkeley Institute, she said I should join," said Miss Lowe. "So I looked for it online and applied and got in."

For the first month the performers stayed in Denver, Colorado. They rehearsed and got to know the programme.

Up With People believes that music is the way to communicate with different cultures, and preaches peace in the communities it touches.

"We would make the younger students pledge that they would change the world. We had shows for them as well."

During big productions, Up With People would collect money from the audience and then give it back to the community.

Miss Lowe already had some experience on stage as she danced with United Dance Productions (UDP) in Bermuda.

"When we went to Thailand we had to learn songs in their language," said Miss Lowe. "The Thai people were really excited about that. They knew some of the songs we sang from little."

She said learning a song in another language took a lot of practice.

"One of the songs was about an elephant," she said. "The elephant is very important to them. They really enjoyed that."

In addition to performing, she also did an internship in the Up With People costume department, 170 community service hours and took 83 educational workshops.

While travelling with Up With People, students stayed with a different host family in every town and city.

"With my first host family I felt a bit nervous because you are staying in a new house with people you don't know. At first, it was very strange, but now I just call them 'mom and dad'. They were real nice and heartwarming. They took me to a stock show, which is a bit like a rodeo."

Miss Lowe said she made many new connections through Up With People.

"I have friends that I could visit in Belgium, Africa, the United States Mexico and Thailand," she said. "They say that I am part of their family."

For Miss Lowe, Thailand represented a big jump from mainland North America.

"In Thailand I got to stay in a village where some of the girls were taken from their hill tribes because they were in danger of prostitution. They were taught English. One night they showed us their tribal dance. We redid houses in the village. It was really fun.

"Their houses were made out of bamboo. We painted houses and scraped the walls."

She said the poverty in Thailand was a shock compared to materialistically wealthy Bermuda.

"We don't know how great we are," said Miss Lowe. "We have so many things that these people don't have.

"For example, they have 'squatty-potties'. You have to squat down to ground level to use the bathroom. It was definitely a big change. Some of my host families didn't speak English, so that was a challenge for me."

She bought a Thai-English dictionary, but it didn't help her very much.

"We have to learn to appreciate what we have in Bermuda," said Miss Lowe. "When I went away I appreciated Bermuda so much. I was like 'wow, these people turn something little into something big'. Sometimes we complain that we are having macaroni & cheese again when these people eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

"Sometimes it would be chicken fried rice. Sometimes it would be rice soup, or rice with vegetables. Yes, I did get tired of eating rice."

But the trip wasn't all song and dance. Her hardest day was when the group was taken on a nature walk.

"Come to find out it was a two and a half hour hike up this mountain," said Miss Lowe. "At the end it was rewarding because we got to see a waterfall. It all paid off."

She became sick in Mexico after eating soup cooked by her host family.

"I wasn't use to all that hot spiciness," she said. "I got pretty sick after that."

But Miss Lowe said she would recommend the Up With People experience to other Bermudians.

"Once you go, you realise how much you have," she said. "It is definitely an eye opener."

Miss Lowe was confident that by taking part in Up With People she had changed the world in some small way.

"For example, once we all went into a food bank and we made food for all these people who were less fortunate," she said. "The trip made me appreciate little things more."