Author: Mandy Barth
The work begins
After a good night’s rest at Hacienda Tijax, the Project Indiana team loaded back up for the rest of the trip up the mountain. After a couple-hour drive, they arrived at their home for the next two weeks: Hotel Villa Santa Elena.
And, then the team headed to a stop near the project site to visit a small hydroelectric generating facility on a stream that’s not far above the area’s natural attraction: a wide picturesque waterfall.
After lunch, they finished the trip to San Jacinto. The first order of business was to check through the supplies stored in a small warehouse near the village Church and to organize the tools and hardware.
The project team attended a town hall meeting with the village residents so they could officially meet one another and everyone could learn a little more about the work planned for the next couple of weeks.
In addition bringing electricity to the village, the project team will be wiring the inside of homes. In exchange for this, those who receive inside wiring have committed to purchase a small wood stove with a chimney to adequately vent the smoke outside of the home. This small step will greatly improve the overall health and eyesight of the village residents.
Following the meeting, the Project Indiana team inspected the poles that were set before their arrival and set the pole anchors the villagers had dug.
Tuesday, March 26, marks the first full day on the project site and line stringing will begin.
A cellular phone signal is not available at the project site. A signal is available at the hotel in the evenings, but an internet connection is not.
The travel day
The first day was a full one. The Project Indiana crew gathered at the Indianapolis International Airport at 4:30 a.m. for its 6 a.m. flight to Atlanta, followed by a flight to Guatemala City.
After eating lunch, the project team and their luggage was loaded onto three pickup trucks, an SUV and a van for the trek part of the way up the mountain. They stopped for the night at Hacienda Tijax in Rio Dulce. The small cabins that make up this hotel complex are connected by boardwalks and suspension bridges. After eating dinner, some of the project team swam in the lakeside pool.
The project team will travel the remainder of the way up the mountain on Monday.
San Jacinto pole setting
Utility poles weigh somewhere around 700 lbs. each. Our electric lineworkers generally use heavy equipment to dig the holes for and move the poles to an upright position that allows for wire to be strung over crossarms and deliver electricity to power our homes.
Our team of Project Indiana lineworkers is traveling to Guatemala today to start the process of stringing that wire and make all of the important connections that will ultimately power about 110 homes in San Jacinto. But, the residents of this village have been working incredibly hard to prepare for their arrival.
When Project Indiana offered to help electrify San Jacinto, the villagers committed to set approximately 70 poles before our project team arrives. That’s a momentous task for any line crew, but the team of villagers has done it without the heavy equipment we have the use of here in the states. They’ve done it all by hand. Their dreams run that deep.
They dream about what they can do and how they can improve the quality of life for their children – all with the aid of modern conveniences a simple flow of electric current can power. And, our lineworkers are helping turn those dreams into plans.