In mid-June, 14 lineworkers from Minnesota and Iowa traveled about 2,800 miles to transform a rural village, improving Guatemalan families’ lives for generations. The trip was part of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s International Program, which has been providing volunteers to illuminate villages and homes in impoverished countries around the world since 1962.
The village of Las Peñas, at an elevation of around 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. Crews helped build more than three miles of powerlines and wired the homes for electric service.
The lineworkers who volunteered are used to working hard in some rough conditions, but this two-week trip in June pressed them to new limits. The ride to the village, after the staging area at a local ranch, was grueling. To get to the village, 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 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 on a couple of days.
“The terrain was harder than I thought it was going to be,” Grant Kulzer, Stearns Electric Association, said. “It rained every night.”
All the work had to be done by hand without bucket trucks and other large equipment available in the states. However, they did have willing local residents. “They were eager to help,” Steve Dvergsten, Sioux Valley Electric, South Dakota, said of the Guatemalans. The crews were amazed at how the locals did the work that would be done by equipment back home, running the line down one side of the mountain and back up the other.
“The locals are amazing, and they go through this terrain like we walk on flat ground,” said Ryan Loomans, Nobles Cooperative Electric. “It's amazing, we couldn't have done it without them.”
The local 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.
“Electricity is going to bring them a better education and a better life,” said Willy, one of the team’s translators.
Along with building the line, the crews also wired the houses with a couple of outlets and light bulbs. Some younger boys were excited just to have light, so they wouldn’t have to use candles, while another man in his 50s said he can’t wait to get a refrigerator, so he can keep food.
On the last day up the mountain, the crews met the locals outside the village for a small ceremony and to say their goodbyes.
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 the 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.”
List of volunteers
- Ben Hoyt, Lake Country Power, MN
- Steve Bronner, MiEnergy Cooperative, MN
- Wiley Harris, Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative, MN
- Ryan Loomans, Nobles Cooperative Electric, MN
- Eric Dessner, People's Energy Cooperative, MN
- Steve Dvergsten, Sioux Valley Energy, MN
- Grant Kulzer, Stearns Electric Association, MN
- Jason Donnelly Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative, IA
- Brian Reidy, East-Central Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative, IA
- Andy Koopmann, Eastern Iowa Light & Power Cooperative, IA
- Bailey Bausch, Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative, IA
- Tanner Dreier, Midland Power Cooperative, IA
- Mike Berkenpas, North West Rural Electric Cooperative, IA
- Hunter Venz, Prairie Energy Cooperative, IA
About the Program:
The trip was part of National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s International Program, 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. The 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, vendors, cooperatives and individuals who wanted to support the work.
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 if you join the dedicated Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2094274217615477/), “2024 Powering a Brighter Future in Guatemala.”
If you would like to support the project and future projects, you can donate through PayPal at https://tinyurl.com/4ffkxmms.