SAN JACINTO, Guatemala — Two employees of NineStar Connect recently returned from Guatemala, where they spent two weeks helping bring electricity to a village.
Construction engineer Jamie Bell and lineman Matt Huck were among the crew of about 15 from across Indiana who traveled to San Jacinto in east-central Guatemala. The trip was from March 25 to April 9. Indiana Electric Cooperatives, an electric cooperative service organization, organized the initiative through its Project Indiana: Empowering Global Communities for a Better Tomorrow.
Bell led the project that energized 90 homes. He said workers extended electric service from an existing line outside San Jacinto through the village and to each residence. They also wired the inside of each home and equipped them with four lights, two switches and two outlets apiece, Bell said.
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The team worked through humid conditions, temperatures that neared 100 degrees and hilly terrain, Bell continued, adding each day required a 40-minute commute.
Bell said it was “a big eye-opener” and “a moving experience” to see how the Guatemalans lived and how hard they worked. The job wouldn’t have been possible without residents helping dig holes, setting poles and hauling equipment, he said.
“They know nothing but hard work,” Bell said. “They do it every day.”
Bell said it was especially rewarding to see gratification from older residents and the emotions they were flooded with upon seeing light produced at the flip of a switch.
“That’s always neat to see,” Bell said.
Workers also helped fix a generator that pumps water throughout the community that hadn’t worked in about three months, Bell said. The crew raised enough funds to hand out 200 pairs of shoes to children at a local school as well, he added.
It was Huck’s first trip abroad through the Indiana Electric Cooperatives program. Bell was a part of a similar initiative through the IEC in the northwestern part of Guatemala in 2017.
IEC has led four projects in Guatemala since 2012. NineStar Connect has been a part of all but one.
Michael Burrow, president and CEO of NineStar Connect, said in an email to the Daily Reporter that the co-op’s motivation to be a part of the projects is embedded in its founding.
“The spirit that drove our cooperative’s founders and knowing that their hard work has resulted in a better quality of life for generations drives us to help other generations to do the same thing,” Burrow said.
