Pres Seniors Jade Bohnert and Bridgette Olash Forever Changed by Summer 2024 Mission Trip

By KRISTIN BECK ‘05

Presentation Academy

Presentation seniors Jade Bohnert and Bridgette Olash are forever changed by their summer mission trip to Guatemala through Hearts In Motion. 

The girls heard about the trip through Mrs. Johna Fortener’s theology class. She received an email from the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Director of Youth Ministry and Faith Formation, and she shared the information with her junior theology classes. While several students were interested, Bridgette and Jade were the only two to sign up. In fact, they were the only high school girls on the trip, which included volunteers from both Kentucky and Tennessee. The rest were high school boys and chaperones, including former Pres parent Deacon Dave Maxwell. The trip lasted from June 28-July 7, 2024.

“I went on the trip because I have a relationship with God, and I thought this was a good way to get closer to God by helping others and reflecting and seeing God working in different ways in a different country,” Bridgette said. She also wanted to go just for the experience itself and to explore the country.

Jade said she went purely because she thought it would be fun. “I wanted to enlighten myself on what is going on outside of this country and outside of where I live,” she said.

From the beginning, the trip was an adventure. Jade had never flown on an airplane before, and on the first leg from Louisville to Atlanta, she sat with their group. However, she sat next to two strangers on the three-and-a-half hour flight to Guatemala City, Guatemala. “It was interesting,” Jade said of her first flights, noting that she slept most of the trip.

Upon their arrival in Guatemala City, the Kentucky group was supposed to drive with the Tennessee group, Bridgette said. However, after waiting an hour and a half, they learned that the Tennessee group was re-routed to El Salvador due to bad weather and ultimately had to spend the night at the airport.

The Kentucky group battled traffic on the way to the Hearts In Motion house in Teculután. They stopped at a restaurant for lunch but the break didn’t help the traffic, and then it started to rain. The bus did not have air conditioning or heat, so the windows kept fogging up, Jade said. They had to keep the windows down which made for a cold ride, and the driver had to use a rag to wipe down the windshield while he was driving, she said.

Bridgette said what struck her was how close the vehicles drove to each other. Scooters frequently split the lanes, and “the trucks were so close I could literally reach out the window and touch them.” There were no stop lights, and many vehicles did not adhere to the stop signs, she said. What was supposed to be a three-hour drive took about six hours, but they finally made it safely to the HIM House in Teculután.

Every morning, the group drove 30 minutes from Teculután to Zacapa, Guatemala. With the help of professional local builders, the volunteers constructed a home from the ground up for a man named Hector and his wife and their two children. Before their arrival, Hector had flattened the land in preparation, and he also helped with the construction, Jade said.

Jade and Bridgette said they worked on almost everything—mixing mortar and cement, chopping and laying cinder blocks, painting and more. Everyone was required to wear pants on the job site. “It was so hot!” Bridgette said. “I was sweating so much there were sweat stains on my hat!”

When the home was complete, Deacon Dave blessed the house and the family. “It was a really sweet moment,” Bridgette said.

Besides working on the house, the volunteers visited the local city dump where many families lived. Jade said the residents would sort through the trash and pick out glass, metal and other materials that could be sold. The volunteers brought them black bean sandwiches and rice milk, and the Tennessee group brought toys and candy for the children, she said.

The group also visited the Hearts In Motion nutrition center in Gualán, Guatemala. They learned about the history of the center and met with some of the families who were getting assistance, Jade said. Jade spent time in the nursery holding babies, and Bridgette played soccer with the older children, including a goalie who did not have legs.

The volunteers began and ended each day with prayer and reflection. Before leaving for the worksite, they prayed and sang or played a song and reflected on how they wanted the day to go. When they returned, they discussed and journaled about what they experienced.

Every day, they wrote about one place where they saw God that day, as well as what made them happy and sad and what made them grateful for what they have in their life, Jade said. The journaling helped them “to get their mind to open up and realize, yes, we are lucky here [in the United States], and even though we feel down sometimes because of different situations, other people in fact do have it worse, but they are happy with it.”

The volunteers spent the last two days of the trip exploring Antigua, Guatemala. They visited a market where they bartered with the sellers and took a class on how to make their own chocolate at a coffee and chocolate shop. “It was so very, very messy!” Jade said.

They learned how to temper the chocolate and then put it in molds and decorated it with cocoa beans and nuts. They attended Mass twice while on the trip, with Jade noting the beauty of the churches. They also saw a volcano erupt.

Jade said her favorite part of the trip was meeting the Guatemalans and making connections with them.

Bridgette said the entire trip was her favorite part—from building the house and seeing the homeowners receive the key, to experiencing Mass in Spanish and eating the local food.

“My view changed entirely on poverty, and I learned to be much, much, much more grateful for the things that I have.”

Bridgette was born in Russia and adopted when she was about four years old. She lived in an impoverished area and felt a connection with the people she met.

After watching happy children play with a ball in the middle of a dirt road and reflecting on all of the memories from the trip, she has learned that it’s not the “stuff” that makes you happy.

“It was the best experience I’ve had in my life,” she said.