Local Lineworker Travels More Than 3,000 Miles To Help Supply Power to a Community in Need
By Andrew Cutler
Wasco Electric Cooperative (WEC) lineworker Bruce Palmer peered at the rugged terrain before him and felt the scorching heat beating down on his body. Swimming into his vision was the vista of a remote Guatemalan village where the temperature routinely climbed above 100 degrees. Only a single power pole was visible.
Bruce was part of a volunteer team that traveled in March to Guatemala to deliver power to nearly 30 homes, a school, and a church. He helped build nearly 3 miles of power lines to deliver electricity to a town that had no lights after sunset.
“We knew we had a monumental task ahead of us, and it was going to take everybody giving 110% to get it done,” Bruce says.
The unique opportunity symbolizes the kind of international cooperation that can improve the quality of life in remote towns and forge lifelong bonds with the people who call those communities home.
The Opportunity of a Lifetime
Bruce’s mission started with an email. After returning from vacation last fall, he checked his messages and learned WEC was looking to send 1 employee on a volunteer adventure to Guatemala. No one else had applied for the endeavor.
The opportunity originated through Oregon Empowers—an effort supported by Oregon Rural Electric Cooperative Association, with significant involvement from Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative in Baker City.
In December, Bruce was chosen to go to Central America. A project orientation, as well as a crew meet-and-greet, followed in January. Bruce was already a seasoned traveler, having visited 20 countries across the globe. But he thought this trip would be different.
“This was going to be my first time doing a volunteer mission where I’ve built power lines,” he says. “To not only see that extreme poverty, but also be able to use my skills and knowledge to help those people was a blessing.”
A Wisconsin native, Bruce worked 10 years as a contract lineworker, traveling across the United States before settling at WEC in August 2023. As a single man with no family obligations, he was 1 of the few volunteers without personal commitments back home, making him an ideal candidate for the trip.
Boots on the Ground
On March 21, Bruce flew from Portland to Guatemala City. Then, he traveled to the team’s hotel in the city of Zacapa.
As part of the job, the crew drove about 30 minutes to a storage facility for tools and other materials. From there, they traveled another 30 minutes into the hills via a rugged 2-track road before reaching the village of Aldea De Coco.
Bruce says they were surprised when they arrived at the village.
“We were told that a majority of the poles were going to be dug and set by the villagers as well as the local municipality,” he says. “Ironically, the word for ‘in the ground’ and ‘on the ground’ is the same. We showed up, and there was 1 pole that had been set.”
The confusion translated into a momentous change of plans. Villagers and the local municipality chipped in to help by digging and setting poles. At the same time, Bruce and his fellow lineworkers worked for 3 days to wire the homes for power. Then, the real work began—7 days of framing power poles, pulling wire through rugged terrain, and attaching the wire to the structures.
The team included lineworkers from across the Northwest, ranging in age from 22 to 58. In addition to volunteers from Oregon, the team included 2 journeyman lineworkers from Wyoming, who hoped to bring a similar program to their state.
Challenges in Paradise
Climatized to a Pacific Northwest spring, the sudden transition to Guatemala’s 100-degree heat was a key challenge.
“I think it took almost a week for most guys to acclimate,” Bruce says. “Even at that, there would be these wild heat waves from about 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., where it would just ramp up. There was 1 guy who had heat exhaustion, and we had to cab him up. Luckily, he came out of it. But everybody was struggling.”
The team originally forecast a rest day, but the men fell behind schedule and decided to work straight through.
“We all knew that we were kind of running behind due to some setbacks— material, the terrain, the poles not being set,” Bruce says. “We opted to work through that, and ultimately it took us about 10 days.”
Accommodations in Guatemala were modest but sufficient. The crew stayed 2 to a room at the hotel for $32 a night.
“The accommodations were nice,” Bruce says. “The first day we showed up, we got a hot shower. And the day we left, we got a hot shower. But we had cold showers pretty much every night due to a lack of hot water, which I suppose was a godsend because the heat was brutal.”
Bruce says the challenges paled in comparison to the rewards.
“The people were absolutely incredible,” he says. “The amount of appreciation they showed us on a day-to-day basis—truly shirt-off-their-backs kind of people. They would try to gift us food, water, and stuff like that while we were working.”
A language barrier and concerns about food safety meant the crew had to politely decline most offerings.
“We had 1 guy on our crew who had eaten a tomato that he had failed to properly clean, and he was sick for an entire day,” Bruce says. “He didn’t even make it on the job site. For 2 days after that, he still wasn’t 100%. So, as nice as the gesture was, we had to hold ourselves back.”
Lighting the Way Forward
Bruce and his crew saw the culmination of their hard work on April 2. The power lines were energized, and suddenly 26 homes, a school, and a church were full of light.
The lighting ceremony celebrated more than just the physical infrastructure. It marked a turning point for the community and the beginning of new possibilities.
“Earlier that day, there were people having refrigerators delivered up in 4-wheel drive trucks,” Bruce says. “I saw somebody had a satellite dish on the back of a motorcycle show up. It was kind of interesting to see when these people would get power, what was their priority? What were they really looking forward to?”
For many, the priorities were simple comforts most Americans take for granted.
“Even just a ceiling fan,” Bruce says. “In some of these houses where there is just stagnant air and 100-plus temps, it was almost unbearable at times.”
During the job, Bruce learned more about the ongoing effort to deliver electricity to the nation, where many rural towns still do not have electricity.
“I was fortunate enough to ride with our Guatemalan engineer,” he says. “They roughly do 6 projects a year. He’s been doing it for around 10 to 12 years.”
Bruce returned to Oregon on April 4. He acknowledges that the team of like-minded individuals came together despite not knowing 1 another at the start, each putting their best foot forward and striving to do the best they could.
“We all formed a bond that is going to be hard to break,” he says. “Some of these guys might work 20, 30 years at a co-op and only ever know the people within their co-op. For them to get out and meet people from different regions—different states— makes a big difference.”
Guatemala Electrification By the Numbers
Team Members
- 13 lineworkers, 1 groundman, 1 apprentice meterman, 1 student, 1 photographer, and 1 manager
Project Statistics
- Line distance: 2.2 miles
- Wire installed: 4.4 miles
- Secondary wire: 2,300 feet
Infrastructure
- Poles installed: 18 primary, 12 secondary
- Transformers: 1 25 kilovolts-amperes, 2 10kVA
- Installations: 116 lights, 56 switches, 56 outlets
Community Impact
- 26 homes electrified
- 1 church connected
- 1 school powered