On a mountainside in Guatemala, the people of La Montanita de la Virgen wash their clothes in streams or from cisterns collecting rainwater, grind their corn by hand, cook over open fires and burn bundles of candles as their children study their evening homework.

They are resourceful, hardworking and grateful, Cimarron Electric Cooperative journeyman/ lineman Brandon Shirey said.

They’re grateful for what they have and also grateful for new opportunities.

Along with 15 other electric cooperative volunteer linemen, Shirey spent three weeks in August and September working to bring electricity for the first time to the small village.

In their continued effort to bring electricity to remote areas in developing countries, Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives sent 12 linemen volunteers in conjunction with its nonprofit organization Oklahoma Energy Trails Foundation to Guatemala.

Also working in partnership with four volunteer linemen from Colorado’s electric cooperatives and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association International, the group joined efforts to build power lines and wiring to 84 structures including one elementary school and two churches in the village.

Before the group’s arrival, local workers cleared the rights of way, dug holes and set the poles and anchors, Shirey said.

“Our job was to drill holes, mount hardware, string wires, hang transformers, while other crews prepared the buildings to receive electricity with breakers, outlets, light sockets and switches,” Shirey added.

In the forested and mountainous terrain, Shirey said the process definitely was more challenging than what they normally encounter.

In western Oklahoma, most of the terrain is flat and straight, Shirey said, and the crews are able to utilize trucks with digger derricks, aerial lift buckets and winch capabilities, but more intensive labor was required in Guatemala.

The linemen had to climb each pole multiple times to accomplish the same goals, he said.

However, the local people were eager to help pull lines and with whatever tasks were needed, Shirey added.

“It wasn’t just 16 guys from Oklahoma and Colorado,” he said. “The local people worked right alongside us.”

A strong quality evident in the villagers, Shirey added, was their embodiment of the old adage, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Shirey told of one instance where the crews needed some trees limbs cleared for the right of way and an older gentleman climbed 80 feet into a tree with only a machete and no safety harness, clearing limbs out of the way.

While working in the village and in the region, Shirey said he took notice of how resourceful the people were.

Crops were planted on steep angles of the mountainside, utilizing every available space and they didn’t waste anything, he said.

Despite the language barrier, it was obvious how welcoming and grateful the people were.

“We’re not there to be the heroes,” Shirey said. “We’re just doing our job in a different place.”

The effort was the fifth electrification project of the Oklahoma Energy Trails in Central and South America. CEC has had two other linemen participate in previous years.

“Our goal by participating in Oklahoma Energy Trails projects is to bring electricity to remote areas in foreign countries that are still developing, which really brings us back to our roots,” Cimarron Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Hyatt said.

After the formation of the Rural Electrification Administration, Cimarron Electric – known then as Consumer Electric – became the first electric cooperative formed in Oklahoma in 1937.

Urban areas were being served, but rural communities didn’t have access to electricity, much like the areas the OAEC is now helping bring electricity to in foreign countries, he said.

At the completion of the project, 77 poles were mounted with hardware and strung with 5.5 miles of electrical lines and six transformers were installed. They will be maintained by the local municipal utility partner for the project, Empresa Electrica Municipal de San Pedro Pinula.

Each home was also wired to receive electricity and received four light bulbs, two light switches and two electrical outlets.

Completing the project a few days early, the crews had the opportunity to visit Tikal and view the Mayan ruins and spent a day in Antigua during Guatemala’s independence day celebration.

The crews returned to the village for the lighting ceremony which included performances by the school children, a visit from the mayor and other festivities.

Each lineman was presented with a certificate and a traditional Guatemalan shirt, Shirey said.

While there, the volunteers also brought soccer balls, frisbees and other toys for the children as well as a five-gallon bucket water filtration system for each household.

Shirey has worked at CEC for 11 years and lives in Okarche with his wife, Mandi, and their three children, Anna and Afton (16) and Ethan (15).

Everyone worked well together to bring electricity to the people of La Montanita de la Virgen, Shirey said, adding it was life-changing and bittersweet leaving for the last time.

Encouraging other linemen to apply for the opportunity, Shirey said he was glad to be a part of bringing electricity to a community for the first time. Access to electricity will bring new opportunities through increased productivity, better access to healthcare and education and other benefits, he said.

“They probably don’t realize yet how life-changing having electricity can be,” Shirey added.