Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 32

Missouri on a Mission
by Jim McCarty
jmccarty@ruralmissouri.coop

Co-op linemen
bring power
to village in
Guatemala

Flash forward to today, and NRECA
International and volunteer electric co-op
lineworkers have wired villages all over
the world, bringing electricity to more
n a mountainside near a remote
than 160 million people in 45 developing
village in Guatemala, nine linecountries. That includes Bolivia, where
men from Missouri stare in awe
Missouri linemen built power lines on
at the deep valley below their
two previous projects.
feet. In the coming days they must build
The latest effort saw the Missouri
a power line that spans this gorge and
linemen leave their families behind just
several others.
before Christmas and fly to Guatemala
The men are part of a project that will
City where they picked up four trucks for their drive to the
bring reliable electricity to the village of Trapichitos for the
mountain village. It would take two days of traveling just
first time. The effort is the third international group projto reach the site, with the last part of the trip a 1 1/2-hour
ect for Missouri's electric cooperatives and one of its most
drive on one of the roughest roads anyone had ever seen.
challenging.
When the Missourians arrived in the village a large
Their job is to build a power line that will connect
crowd had already gathered. Elders from the village made
Trapichitos with a small hydroelectric generator located in
speeches that included thanking the lineman for their help
Batzchocola, which already has electricity.
If they succeed, a second group of Missouri electric co-op and prayers for their safety. Kids darted around the group,
laughing and playing with toys handed out by their new
linemen will return to wire homes. On this, their first day
friends.
in the village, it seems like a big "if."
After a promise to bring electricity to the village from
"I thought I had some rough areas where I work," says
Black River Electric lineman Chris Turner, whose work area project leader Tim Pirtle, a training instructor for the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, the group got to
includes the rugged St. Francois Mountains and Missouri's
work planning the effort. They divided into two teams. One
highest point. "This blows it out of the water."
would string wire in the village while the other set to work
As if the rugged terrain wasn't enough of a challenge,
framing poles on the mountainside.
these men arrived in Guatemala with few of the tools they
Typical of these projects, some of the material was misswould normally use to build power lines. For them it was
ing and many of the poles had yet to be set. The question
a throwback to the 1930s when electric cooperatives first
became how to set multiple poles and their anchors, while
wired rural areas in the United States.
pulling miles of wire up and down the steep mountainside
"I've never known anything but bucket trucks and all
through a jungle landscape that had yet to be cleared. The
the tools to do the job," says Jake Mebruer, a lineman for
answer came in the large group of men from the village who
Boone Electric Cooperative. At 26 years old, he was the
were determined to lend a hand.
youngest member of the group. "It's kind of neat coming
Armed with machetes, the villagers set to work clearhere and not having any of that. We are doing everything
ing thick vegetation that
the old-school way."
included banana, orange
The project was one
and lemon trees. They
of several taking place in
continually amazed their
Guatemala in 2019 as the
new friends with their
National Rural Electric
ability to walk up and
Cooperative Association's
down seemingly impossiInternational Program
ble mountainsides with
pulled out all the stops
ease.
to bring electricity to
"The workers here are
unserved areas in this
unreal," says Tom Greer,
Central American nation.
a veteran lineman from
NRECA International beLaclede Electric. "There's
gan in 1962 following the
a couple lines through
25th anniversary of the
here that are real steep. I
rural electrification prowas sitting there scratchgram in the U.S. Its goal
ing my head about how
was to export the electric
are we going to get that
cooperative model to dewire up and over and
veloping countries where
about 20 of them just
people were living without Black River Electric lineman Chris Turner teams up with two Guatemalans to
grabbed ahold of that wire
the benefits of electricity.
drag a power line up a steep mountainside during the project.

O

32

RURAL MISSOURI | MARCH 2020



Rural Missouri - March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rural Missouri - March 2020

Contents
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - Cover1
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - Cover2
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - Contents
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 4
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 5
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 6
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 7
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 8
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 9
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 10
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 11
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 12
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Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 14
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 15
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 16
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 17
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 18
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 19
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 20
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 21
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 22
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Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 31
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 32
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 33
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 34
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Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 41
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 42
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 43
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Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 45
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 46
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 47
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 48
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 49
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 50
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 51
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Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 54
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 55
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 56
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 57
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - 58
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - Cover3
Rural Missouri - March 2020 - Cover4
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