A month ago, I took a trip to rural Guatemala to participate in a village lighting ceremony. It was both humbling and inspirational.
The Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas participate in the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) International program, and this year, our mission was to Guatemala. NRECA International’s mission is to improve the quality of life of rural people around the world by providing them access to safe, reliable and affordable electricity.
I think of it more simply — electric cooperatives brought light and opportunity to rural America, and now we are sharing that light and those values with the world. Since 1962, NRECA International has brought electricity to more than 220 million people in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and Arkansas has been a part of that program.
Over the last decade, co-ops from across America have sent 567 lineworkers to Guatemala, building 155 miles of line and bringing electricity to more than 2,500 homes. Arkansas alone has contributed 87 of those lineworkers and 30 miles of line.
This year, the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas sent 16 lineworkers — Operation Razorback — to a remote village in Guatemala with no access to electricity. We built electric lines to connect that village and bring them electricity for the first time in their lives. Our lineworkers spent three weeks in the jungle building six miles of electric line to bring electricity and opportunity to some of the poorest people on earth.
Our lineworkers had no access to bucket trucks or modern equipment, but rather they built this system the old-fashioned way — by climbing wood poles and using trucks or manpower to pull the lines up on the poles. The local villagers were given the mission to clear a path in the jungle for the electric lines, and they did so with machetes, axes and saws. All of this was no easy task. It was hot, humid, hard work — true sweat equity.
Power and purpose
Seeing what they accomplished, I could not have been prouder to be part of the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas. Our lineworkers were amazing ambassadors of our nation, our state and our organization. This experience is truly transformative and in some cases, life-changing. Even with the hot and hard work in rough living conditions, every one of these lineworkers told me that they really wanted to come back in 2027 when we do our next project.
I know our lineworkers love their jobs, being the heroes that keep the lights on in rural Arkansas. They take great pride in restoring power after hurricanes and storms, and in seeing the relief on people’s faces when the lights come back on. However, there is something even more powerful and significant about seeing the joy and hope in someone’s face who is seeing the light for the first time. It is that feeling and that sense of purpose and accomplishment that make every one of these lineworkers want to come back.
I toured the village with our lineworkers, and it was like entering a time machine and going back 100 years. Homes with dirt floors, no running water, women washing clothes in the river, villagers bathing in the river and women hauling water to their homes and cooking over wood fires with no chimney and smoke filling the rooms.
Everything is accomplished with manual labor, and almost all the people’s time and energy is expended just to survive. It is humbling to stand in the home of a family that has almost nothing, knowing that you have almost everything back home. The only difference is that you had the good fortune of being born in the most amazing country in the world. I also toured their church, which was the pride of the village and much nicer than their homes. As I stood in the middle of the village looking down the main dirt road, it hit me that this would be the first year the village would be able to hang lights to celebrate Christmas.
Heritage and hope
The tradition of Christmas lights began in 17th-century Germany, where families attached lit candles to their Christmas trees to symbolize the light of Christ in the world. Putting a star on the top of the tree symbolized the Star of Bethlehem, which led the Magi to the birthplace of Jesus. Putting an angel on top of the tree symbolized the angels who announced the birth of Jesus.
As German immigrants came to America, this tradition spread with them. Thomas Edison made this tradition much safer by inventing electric lights. In 1882, his partner, Edward H. Johnson, created the first string of lights for a Christmas tree, with 80 red, white and blue bulbs. In 1895, President Grover Cleveland decorated the White House Christmas tree with electric lights, and in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge lit the national Christmas tree with over 3,000 lights. In 1938, Arkansas Secretary of State Crip Hall started lighting the State Capitol dome on the first Saturday of December. (Read the heartfelt reason behind this tradition in our cover story on page 8.)
As the cost of lights and electricity decreased in America, this tradition spread to homes across the country. Today, Americans purchase 150 million Christmas light sets every year, and it is estimated that over 80 million homes are decorated with lights every Christmas season. A fun electrical fact: Christmas lights account for 6% of the nation’s electric load each December.
Standing on a dirt road in Guatemala, I realized that this year, when they say “Feliz Navidad” to each other, they, too, will be able to hang Christmas lights, and Arkansas had a part in spreading that light and joy to the world.
