Lighting Up the World: one village at a time By Anna Politano
Electric Cooperatives of Oklahoma to electrify remote Guatemalan village
Editor’s Note: OKL Editor, Anna Politano, has recently returned from Guatemala after a pre-plan- ning trip that will help prepare a team of volunteers to bring electricity to an isolated village for the fi rst time. Fun fact: The Guatemalan people like to eat black beans every day for breakfast.
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Top: One of the homes in the village of Chiis. Bottom (left to right): Damon Lester, lead lineman and team leader with Indian Electric Cooperative and Tim Jenlink, staking engineer with Alfalfa Electric Cooperative make new friends in Guatemala. Photos by Anna Politano
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itting at 2,700 feet altitude, atop a tow- ering mountain surrounded by scenic elevation ranges, is the small village of Chiis (pronounced ‘Chee-is’) in north-
western Guatemala. With a total of 65 homes and two churches, the villagers grow corn for self-con- sumption and generate most of their income from the production of cardamon seeds, peppers, and coffee as well as a variety of other spices. Although the offi cial language of the country of Guatemala is Spanish, residents in the village of Chiis speak a regional dialect called ‘Kekchi.’ Stricken by scarce resources and poverty, most villagers made Chiis their home after receiving a plot of land from the Guatemalan government, a result of a Peace Agreement following the Guate- malan Civil War from 1963 to 1996. Today, the Chiis villagers live in humble means and without access to electricity. But some bright news has just arrived to Chiis residents: electricity
is coming! In October of 2017, 13 volunteers from Oklahoma’s electric cooperatives will journey to Chiis to build powerlines and electrify the village. This electrifi cation project is possible through a partnership between the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s (NRECA) philan- thropic arm, NRECA International, and the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives (OAEC). The project is funded by Oklahoma’s electric cooperatives as well as from tax-deduct- ible charitable contributions by organizations and individuals. Volunteers from Oklahoma will build power- lines for a stretch of about three miles. The pow- erlines will belong to a local utility, ADECORK (Associación Para Desarollo Communitario Rax Kiche). Translation: Association for Community Development Rax Kiche. ADECORK will carry the responsibility of generating and distributing electric power to Chiis. The utility operates a
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