Arkansas co-ops electrify hamlets in Guatemala
Villagers, linemen tearful when lights are switched on
After years of waiting for electricity, 95-year-old Felicita Lopez Vazquez recently turned on a light bulb in her home in a remote village in Guatemala with the help of a team of Arkansans.
Her home was wired eight years ago, but not until late October were power lines run to her house, said Rob Roedel, spokesman for Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp.
Vazquez, who had a television wrapped in plastic waiting for that day, “was born in that house,” Roedel said.
She “had raised generations in her home” without electricity, said Randy Evans, who works with First Electric Cooperative in Benton.
“Tears were running down her cheeks when the light bulb came on,” Evans said.
A team of 13 Arkansans from several Arkansas electric cooperatives traveled to Guatemala in October to provide electricity to 85 houses in three villages, home to about 450 people. The team was preceded in July by a smaller group who scouted the area.
Operation Razorback,
as the Arkansans called the project, took place near Huehuetenango in Guatemala’s western highlands on the border with Mexico, about 130 miles northwest of Guatemala City.
The area where the electric crews worked has some of the richest soil in the world, great for growing coffee, the primary crop, said Mel Coleman, chief executive officer of North Arkansas Electric Cooperative in Salem.
The terrain is similar to Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, but covered with rain forest foliage, Coleman said.
With electricity, the Guatemalans “will no longer rely on batteries or kerosene to provide light,” Roedel said. “And the wood ovens can be replaced or supplemented by electric models.”
When the crew connected a home, they would travel more than a mile to the house to be with the family when the power was turned on for the first time, Roedel said.
“[The crews] were big ol’ 225- to 300-pound boys and they told me that every night they’d cry” watching the villagers as the lights came on, Roedel said.
The villagers prepared for the arrival of the crews by setting dozens of power poles and anchors and clearing the right-of-way along the mountainous terrain, Coleman said.
“Guatemala is a poor country,” Coleman said. “Not poor like starving or dying for lack of medication. Guatemala is actually one of the richest countries in Central America, but they still have very rural areas that don’t have electricity.
“They live in one- or tworoom homes with dirt floors. They’ve existed without electricity forever. But they are as happy as they can be,” Coleman said.
The Arkansas crews traveled with two interpreters, but they didn’t speak good English and the Arkansans didn’t speak good Spanish, Evans said.
A request by some of the villagers when Coleman was in Guatemala last year was one of the reasons the three villages were chosen, Coleman said.
“One of the nights we were there, a group of about 30 or 40 villagers walked a couple of hours at night in the rain through the forest to visit us,” Coleman said. “They asked us if we would bring power to their villages.” One of them was a young girl named Esna who is related to the 95-yearold Vazquez and lives a few houses from her, Coleman said.
Esna hugged Coleman and asked him to bring electricity to her village.
“When you are a grandfather like me, it means a lot when you have somebody who is so young and has so much of her life ahead of her ask you something like that,” Coleman said. “You have the contrast between Esna, who now has the opportunity for an improved quality of life, and her 95-year-old relative, who finally has electricity herself.”
The linemen compared the hard-working villagers to Sherpas, the Nepalese people who serve as guides for mountain climbers.
“I was highly impressed with their ability and work ethic,” Evans said.
The villagers set the 250to 300-pound poles by hand, Evans said. They had no equipment and no trucks.
“It was no vacation,” he said. “It was work. But it was for people who truly deserved it. I was able to use my talents to serve others who don’t have as much. It was a humbling, eye-opening experience.”
The linemen worked at altitudes of 7,000 to 8,000 feet, said Doug Evans, who works with Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. and was the project coordinator.
The Arkansans left almost everything they had with the villagers — equipment, rain slickers, shoes, socks, clothes, pliers and boots, Roedel and Doug Evans said.
Some of the crew bought rubber boots, blankets and cooking utensils for the villagers, Doug Evans said.
When the three-week job was completed, the Guatemalans held a celebration for the Arkansans, Roedel said. The delegation of Arkansans met in the capital, Guatemala City, with Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, who complimented them on their work, Roedel said.
Another team of 13 will travel to Guatemala in April to connect three more villages near the Mexican border with electricity. The electricity for all six villages will be bought from Mexico.