Lineworkers routinely venture into unfamiliar rural areas without power on storm restoration trips to other regions. Traveling to Central America to deliver power to a remote village for the first time, though, provided 4 Coosa Valley Electric Cooperative (CVEC) linemen visuals they were unaccustomed to.
The homes were made of mud, sticks, and tin. Groups of 10 or more people rode on mid-size pickup trucks. The people knew they were poor but seemed happy nonetheless.
Amidst this different scenery, linemen Billy Huffaker, Matt Walker, Matt Jeffers, and Braden Hubbard added more joy to a small village outside Jalapa, Guatemala, in May. By the time they completed their project with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s International program, about 25 dwellings had power for the first time ever.
“All those people were so grateful for us being there,” Hubbard says.
While the linemen embraced the opportunity to help those less fortunate, the trip came with some major challenges — especially for Jeffers a few days into the journey.
Going Overseas
All 4 of CVEC’s linemen have journeyed into other sections of the United States to help those regions recover from storm damage — often on short notice. Going international, though, required months of preparation with some unique steps.
CVEC’s linemen secured passports. They took a litany of shots. They planned what tools and equipment they might need for a task with little specific details.
The latter aspect proved to be a major challenge. “I think we overpacked a little bit, but there was some stuff we thought, ‘We’re not gonna need this,’ and used it a lot,” Hubbard says. “We took all that rope, and that was the biggest thing we used.”
“Their hardware store was about the size of a conference room,” Walker adds, noting the lack of supplies available near the job site. “When we got into the village we were working in, I didn’t see a tractor anywhere.”
The linemen then delivered all the supplies necessary for the task at hand, another monumental effort.
“Getting all of our stuff in the airport was a job,” Jeffers says. “We were worn out by the time we got to Guatemala. We had to carry all of our stuff up 3 flights of stairs.”
“I think we each carried about 100 pounds of stuff,” Walker adds. “It was probably 150, pushing closer to 200. You look at our luggage bill, it was high. That was tough.”
Despite the logistical challenges, Huffaker, Walker, Jeffers, and Hubbard excitedly answered the call to deliver power where none had existed before.
“Your primary reason to do anything like that is to help folks — to give something to somebody that you have and they don’t,” Walker says.
Challenges of the Job
At its core, building powerlines into a nearby village was familiar work to CVEC’s linemen. Construction in a different country exposed the group to different sets of tools and techniques, though.
Whereas most of American power infrastructure is built with rope machines, bucket trucks, and other heavy equipment, Guatemalan construction is more manual, Jeffers says.
“They were cutting trees with machetes. It would be the people of the village that were pulling the wire,” Walker says. “When they pull wire, it’s straight up and straight down the mountains. They can’t climb poles using our method, and we can’t climb using theirs.
The linemen also experienced long travel times and worked in much higher elevations than they were accustomed to, even though Alabama’s highest point — Mount Cheaha (2,413 feet)— borders CVEC’s territory. The linemen’s base city, Jalapa, sits at 4,469 feet, and the job site was even further up a mountain.
“It was an hour drive in on a dirt road, and then it was climbing mountains in the trucks,” Hubbard says. “It would take another hour to get there.”
That drive, though, provided Jeffers his the most enjoyable moments of the trip.
“My favorite part of the trip to me was in the mornings, on the way to the job, and on the way back to the hotel — just seeing the way they live their life,” he says.
Unfortunately, Jeffers only witnessed that drive a few times before 1 of the perils of working in a foreign country affected him.
A Painful Journey
Sanitation standards in impoverished countries often do not compare to those of the United States, which is why lineworkers on any NRECA International trips are provided unique guidelines to help avoid infectious diseases. Some guidelines are as simple — yet uncommon stateside — as using bottled water to brush teeth.
Despite his vigilance, Jeffers eventually contracted 2 strands of E. coli. 4 days into the 3-week trip, Jeffers first experienced some symptoms.
A local doctor made a rudimentary check on Jeffers initially but determined nothing was abnormally wrong with him. When blood began to appear in his stool early Sunday morning, Jeffers knew he needed more medical attention.
“I woke Matt up because I was in pain. I was up every 30 minutes,” he says.
A visit to the clinic in Jalapa, near the crew’s hotel, yielded a long wait. Eventually, the clinic administered Jeffers some medicine intravenously before sending him to a hospital in Guatemala City, nearly 2 hours away.
There, Jeffers says he received care comparable to that found in the United States.
“Once I got there, the nurses were like clockwork, giving me medicine and probably some of the best care,” he says. “I couldn’t complain about it.”
His road to recovery, though, took several days and many hands home and abroad.
Walker, who has known and worked alongside Jeffers for almost 30 years, left the job site 2 days into Jeffers’ hospitalization. He kept supplying Jeffers with comfort items and clothing as needed and updated Jeffers’ family on his progress.
Meanwhile CVEC human resources director Shelia Morris, along with CVEC’s contract nurse practitioner Amy Ledbetter, worked long hours to get Jeffers medically evacuated to the United States. Other CVEC employees prayed in their offices for Jeffers’ quick recovery.
“Coosa Valley went above and beyond before the trip and after the trip,” Jeffers says. “All the people that reached out to me, I felt the love all the way from here to Guatemala. I appreciated the whole thing.”
Finishing The Job
After a week in a Guatemalan hospital, Jeffers flew into the United States, where he was evaluated at the nearby University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital. Jeffers was discharged shortly thereafter and lost 20 pounds throughout his illness. Walker returned to the States alongside his friend.
Huffaker and Hubbard remained behind to help finish the work the CVEC linemen started. They were paired with 2 linemen from a Tennessee cooperative to help finish their project.
Hubbard witnessed the “lighting” ceremony, where a large crowd gathered to watch the village's lights turn on for the very first time. In their true servant fashion, the lineworkers purchased all the toys at a local store to give to the village children as part of the celebration.
“It was cool. “It was a good experience,” Hubbard says. While Jeffers’ illness may have dampened the initial enthusiasm about serving overseas, Hubbard and Jeffers both envision themselves participating in the NRECA International program once the opportunity presents itself again.
“I would like to go again, but I’d like to go somewhere else,” Hubbard says. “I’d like to go to Africa,” Jeffers adds.