By Logan Langlois
NASHVILLE, TN — Ten Tennessee MTE linemen joined a 21-person volunteer crew this past May, traveling to a remote village in Guatemala to lay cables and build towers to provide electricity to the townspeople. One volunteer, Brad Nattress, said that the team could have never completed their 19-day mission without the dedicated help of the townspeople and five volunteer interpreters. Nattress said everyone banded together through several weeks of long hours, no days off, and having to use old-school methods. Workers also had to overcome their lack of available equipment, while simultaneously navigating a difficult terrain that often was accompanied by ever-changing weather.
“Words can’t even describe it, pictures can’t describe it,” Nattress said. “The elements and the terrain were just crazy.”
Nattress said the volunteer group, pulled themselves together as one. Nattress said he was especially impressed considering the whole team had only met once before over a brief lunch that had occurred a month prior to shipping out.
Nattress said during the first few days of hard work in the town, the volunteers found themselves disheartened by the overwhelming amount of work and the lack of supplies at their disposal. Nattress said after a few days, however, the workers began making real progress and were able to establish achievable daily goals for themselves and the townspeople.
“Our attitudes kind of changed and we were more positive because that’s what we really wanted,” Nattress said. “We wanted to come back home and be proud about it.”
Nattress said most of their work consisted of laying electrical wires for the town up a hill that still hosted abundant trees and wildlife. He said the crew quickly found they were unable to complete the job with the maps they were given, so they went on to both acquire and draw the improved maps they used for their time in the town. Nattress said while working the volunteers couldn’t see the other towers being connected by the lines, so they had to be careful with their coordination to lay the lines correctly.
Nattress said the entire time both the townspeople and interpreters helped volunteers in any way they could. Nattress noted the townspeople were incredibly welcoming to the volunteers throughout their stay and that he was taken aback by how positive everyone around him was throughout his time in the town.
“Those people right there, they’re never not smiling,” Nattress said. “They don’t even know what a bad day is.”
Nattress said that one of his favorite memories from the trip was at the end when the workers bought several nice soccer balls for the villagers to use on their makeshift field. He said along with the soccer balls, the volunteers got snacks and candy for the children and dumped it on a communal table for the interpreters to announce to the townspeople. Nattress said he then got to watch the kids make their shirts into makeshift pouches to make away with as much loot as possible. He said there was also a lighting ceremony where the village turned on the lights using the electricity they had just installed – the perfect sendoff for him and his team to return stateside.
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