Cooperative lineworkers to help electrify Guatemalan villages
的 lineworkers from Minnesota and Iowa are used to working hard in some rough conditions, but this two-week trip in June pressed them to new limits. 的 ride to the village, after the staging area at a local ranch, was grueling. 去那个村子, 队员们花了一个小时在岩石上跳来跳去, 溅起水坑, 横跨褪色, spinning through ruts and sliding on the wet red clay road that hadn’t even existed four weeks earlier. 雨, coming in sheets at times or as a lingering grey mist, 保持路面光滑，行驶缓慢, and caused the team to walk the last mile into the village on a couple of days.
“的 terrain was harder than I thought it was going to be,——格兰特·库泽, 斯特恩斯电气协会, 说. “每天晚上都下雨.”
Las村Peñas, 海拔大约6,000英尺, is made up of about 35 homes scattered on the crests and flat areas of the mountainside. 的 people — ranging from nursing infants to those with grey hair and weathered skin — live in the mountain village, 他们中的大多数是农民. Not farmers with heavy equipment and modern conveniences, 但是耕种土地, 种植玉米, 建筑围栏, 喷涂杂草, 收割玉米, coffee beans and other crops — all by hand without modern machinery to help with the work.
Working by hand is the way of life in this area and — at least for a short time — the way of life for the lineworkers, 谁去旅行了?,800 miles to build more than three miles of line to bring electricity that will improve the lives of these families for generations.
波兰人是手工制作的, transformers hoisted up by pulley and wire pulled from one pole to the next by willing villagers. 当地人已经准备好介入工作了. “的y were eager to help,” Steve Dvergsten from Sioux Valley Electric, 说 of the locals.
“的y pulled all the wire straight down the mountainside and straight back up the other side,Mike Berkenpas, 爱荷华州西北REC队队长, 说.
的 village is served by the local municipality, which will manage the lines now that they are built. Having electricity will bring meaningful change to the people in the village. In rural villages, often just the boys are in school. Girls don’t typically attend school because of the time it takes to do housework and food preparation. In locations where electricity has been installed, the girls can then attend school with the boys. 许多其他的变化也随之而来:更好的健康, 明火减少, 食物冷藏, 经济增长等.
“Electricity is going to bring them a better education and a better life,“威利, 团队的翻译之一, 说.
同时建造这条线, the crews also wired the houses with a couple of outlets and light bulbs. 从每个家走出来都是一种锻炼, as the village is scattered at different elevations on the mountainside.
伯肯帕斯对一些村民说. 一些年纪更小的男孩很高兴能有光, 这样他们就不用用蜡烛了, while another man in his 50s 说 he can’t wait to get a refrigerator so he can keep food.
在上山的最后一天, the crews met the villagers outside the village for a small ceremony. Scott Meinecke from the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives spoke on behalf of the team. He thanked the villagers and 说 it was a pleasure to come and serve them. He acknowledged that the work would not have gotten done without the villagers’ help.
的 leader of the village spoke on behalf of the community and shared their gratefulness to the team. “感谢所有帮助过我的人，”他说. “You bring happiness for the hope that we can do more now with electricity.”
During an interview, one woman summed it up nicely: “I am grateful that you came here to visit. It is a grand day that you installed electricity here.”
志愿者名单
本·霍伊特，Lake Country Power, MN
Wiley Harris, Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative, MN
瑞恩·鲁曼斯，诺布尔斯合作电力公司，明尼苏达州
埃里克·德斯纳，人民能源合作社，明尼苏达州
Steve Dvergsten，苏谷能源公司，明尼苏达州
Grant Kulzer, 斯特恩斯电气协会, MN
Jason Donnelly Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative, IA
Brian Reidy, East-Central Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative, IA
Andy Koopman，东部爱荷华之光 & IA电力合作社
Bailey Bausch, Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative, IA
坦纳·德雷尔，米德兰电力合作社，伊利诺斯州
Mike Berkenpas, North West Rural Electric Cooperative, IA
Hunter Venz, Prairie Energy Cooperative, IA
的 trip was part of National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s (NRECA) International Program, which has been providing volunteers to illuminate villages and homes in impoverished countries around the world since 1962. 的 program has been working in Guatemala since 2011 and volunteer workers have brought electricity to more than 7,在农村社区有1000人. 的 teams that went on behalf of all of Minnesota’s and Iowa’s electric cooperatives, couldn’t have done the work without the generosity of many donors, 供应商, cooperatives and individuals who wanted to support the work.
的 明尼苏达州农村电力协会, along with Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives, helped organize the trip. You can see photos and videos from the trip if you join the dedicated Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/groups/2094274217615477/)，“2024年助力危地马拉更光明的未来”.”
If you would like to support the project and future projects, you can donate through PayPal at http://tinyurl.com/4ffkxmms.