Lighting up a Guatemalan village

Ben Hoyt’s recent trip to Guatemala was a life-changing experience for the Lake Country Power journeyman lineworker and also for the eastern village residents that received electricity for the first time.

Hoyt, who works in Mountain Iron, and 13 other line workers built 3.5 miles of primary and secondary line, carried transformers by hand, wired homes with wall outlets and light bulbs, and provided water filters to the Guatemalan people, an LCP news release said.

The two-week trip was definitely something he won’t soon forget.

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.”

Building the line was no easy task.

While the volunteer lineworkers are used to hard work in rough conditions, the two-week trip in June pressed them to new limits, including a grueling ride to the village of Las Penas, which was four miles away. Las Penas sits at an elevation of 6,000 feet and is made up of about 35 homes scattered on the crests and flat areas of the mountainside in easter Guatemala.

The extremely rough road was made even more treacherous by rain and slick roads. The team even had to walk the last mile into the village a couple of the 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, according to LCP. 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 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, an LCP news release stated.

The local Guatemalan municipality will now 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, according to LCP.

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.

This work echoes 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.”