Ben Hoyt, journeyman lineworker for Lake Country Power, recently returned from a volunteer project in Guatemala to bring electricity into an eastern village for the first time. Hoyt and 13 other line workers built 3.5 miles of primary and secondary line, carried transformers by hand, wired homes with wall outlets and lightbulbs, and provided water filters to the Guatemalan people.
The project was part of an international program sponsored by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which has been providing volunteers to illuminate villages and homes in impoverished countries around the world since 1962. The program has been working in Guatemala since 2011, and volunteer workers have brought electricity to more than 7,000 people in rural communities.
Lake Country Power was pleased to send Ben Hoyt to Guatemala for two weeks to help with this life-changing work. The village of Las Peñas, at an elevation of 6,000 feet, is made up of about 35 homes scattered on the crests and flat areas of the mountainside, near the larger community of Jalapa in eastern Guatemala.
The lineworkers who volunteered are used to hard work in rough conditions, but this two-week trip in June pressed them to new limits. The ride to the village, after grabbing equipment from the staging area at a local ranch four miles from Las Peñas, was grueling. To reach Las Peñas, the team spent more than an hour bouncing over rocks, splashing through puddles, straddling washouts, spinning through ruts and sliding on the wet, red clay road that hadn’t even existed four weeks earlier.
The rain, coming down in sheets at times or as a lingering gray mist, kept the road slick and travel slow, and caused the team to walk the last mile into the village during a couple of days.
“I expected it to be rugged, so I was trying to get ready to conquer the mountains we were about to get into, but I didn’t realize how unready I was,” Hoyt said reflecting on the terrain. “It was wild. It was up and down and a lot of physical labor. It was tough, but everybody was doing the work, so it didn’t really matter. We were in it together and it was easy if you just struggle through.”
All the work had to be done by hand without bucket trucks and other large equipment that is available in the United States. Residents of the village were more than willing to help. The crews were amazed at how the locals ran line down one side of the mountain and back up the other on foot.
“It was impressive,” said Hoyt of the Guatemalan residents. “I mean watching those guys traverse the mountains was something else. I would have never expected that. It was fun hanging out with them, too. They were probably the happiest people I’ve ever seen, you know, with what they have; it was pretty cool to see.”
The local Guatemalan municipality will manage the lines and serve the village. The introduction of electricity will bring meaningful change to the community. In rural villages, boys often attend school while girls are kept home to do housework and food preparation. With electricity, girls can join the boys attending school. Additionally, electricity brings numerous other benefits including better health, fewer open fires in kitchens, refrigeration of food, economic growth and more.
On the last day in the mountain, crews met the locals outside the village for a small ceremony and to say their goodbyes. The crews gave them water filtration systems, toothbrushes, and school supplies among other gifts.
Hoyt said he’ll remember most, “the guys that I worked with and when we turned the power on, how happy the residents were just to have a couple light bulbs and be able to see at night without burning candles. You could see how much of a difference it was going to make just by being around them when the lights came on.”
The leader of the village spoke on behalf of the community, expressing their gratitude to the team. “Thank you to everyone who helped,” he said. “You bring happiness for the hope that we can do more now with electricity.”
This work echoes of a time in the U.S. about 80-90 years ago when rural areas received power for the first time thanks to rural electric cooperatives. Life in America is significantly better today thanks to rural electrification. One Guatemalan woman summed it up nicely, “I am grateful that you came here to visit. It is a grand day that you installed electricity here.”
The Minnesota Rural Electric Association, along with Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives, helped organize the trip. You can see photos and videos from the trip by joining the dedicated Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2094274217615477/, “2024 Powering a Brighter Future in Guatemala.”
Lake Country Power, www.lakecountrypower.coop, is a Touchstone Energy® cooperative serving parts of eight counties in northeastern Minnesota. The rural electric cooperative provides services to more than 44,000 members and has offices located in Cohasset, Kettle River and Mountain Iron.
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