Sixty-five homes in a poor, rural Guatemalan village were given light this past October,

while Clint Mobley, one of OEC’s own linemen, was given a new perspective and appreciation
for a world so unlike his own.

Mobley has worked as a lineman for OEC for the past twelve years and has always heard
about the NRECA’s annual trip to Guatemala. However, he had never considered going on the trip
himself until this year, when he was encouraged to apply and submitted his application in early
2017.

“I knew I wanted to go when I realized what an incredible opportunity it would be for a

blue collar working guy like me to take my skills and help change the lives of these people in a
poverty-stricken community,” Mobley said. “This project provided me with the chance to do
something out of my comfort-zone while simultaneously serving a people group I could never
reach on my own.”

About a month later, Mobley was called in for an interview at NRECA, which was a bit
intimidating, as he was the only candidate for the trip in the room and was questioned by about
twenty interviewers.

He left the interview feeling very excited about the potential to travel to Guatemala, but
also nervous because he knew it was a highly competitive opportunity. “I tried not to get my hopes
up, but that was hard to do because as I exited the interview, I realized how badly I wanted to go,”
Mobley said.

Finally, after several months of waiting, Mobley was asked in June 2017 to join the team
of thirteen men from various Oklahoma Co-ops- eleven linemen and two electricians -that would
be traveling to Chiis, Guatemala in October 2017.

“We flew into Guatemala City, a very urban and commercialized area,” Mobley explained.
“There was a Hard Rock Café right across from our hotel. But by the time we drove nine hours
out of the city to the small village of Chiis, it was like a whole different world.”

When asked what was the most memorable part of his eighteen-day adventure in South
America, Mobley didn’t skip a beat before saying it was the village children he and his team met.

“The kids were by far the best part of the trip. I’ve never met harder workers. I mean those
kids were at our sides helping us work from daylight to dark. When I say helping us work, I mean
it. They would drag our tool bags and carry our ladders down the stretch of line we were installing.
And these were seven and eight-year-old kids who didn’t even speak our language, but after a few
days, it didn’t matter.”

Mobley explained that the small poverty-stricken village of Chiis has previously been
receiving their limited electricity from a few solar panels.

“Somebody duped them on those solar panels though,” Mobley said. “They have been
paying seventeen American dollars a month for electricity.”
 After the crew from NRECA came in to Chiis and completed all of their work, it is now
going to cost the village people about four dollars a month for electricity. They now have more
money in their monthly budgets to buy food and school supplies for their children.

“I can’t even explain how poor these people were, but they are such happy people, simply
because they don’t know anything different,” Mobley said.

Three light bulbs and two plugins were installed in sixty-five homes which is about half as
many as single room in an American home has, but Mobley says, “That is way more than they
had.”

Out of all the 65 homes in the village, there was one with a TV. “That home was probably
the wealthiest in the village. They had concrete floors and their children spoke English. Those
parents are trying to get their kids out of this village and the cycle of poverty that encircles it,”
Mobley said.

Here in the United States, we are busy rushing from one activity or meeting to the next, but
in Chiis they are worried about their next meal and completing their household chores. “Even the
smallest of kids have duties- everyone does their fair share,” Mobley said. They were some of the
hardest workers I have ever met and were at our side the entire time,” he explained.

The team of thirteen men installed three miles of line in Chiis. Mobley said, “We had to do
everything the old school way. Rodney from Cimarron Electric, Franco from Canadian Valley and
I went ahead of everyone else to frame the poles (which means drilling the holes where the wire
will go) and hand-dug 8-foot-long bust anchors into the rocks on the side of the mountain- this
was no flat Oklahoma terrain! Then the other guys followed behind us stringing the line.”

“I really think I did more physical labor in those first few days there than I have ever done
in all my years here, even including ice storms,” Mobley chuckled. ‘It was hard work.”

“Looking back, the bond I formed with all the other guys- my fellow Oklahomans and the
Guatemalan men is so special. We still talk every day. Don’t get me wrong, I have great friends
here, but it’s just not the same. When you are taken out of your comfort zone in the way we were,
you bond in a unique way that only comes from being in circumstances like these together,”
Mobley said.

“Here at home, our job can be competitive and we are always trying to outwork the next
guy. But that mindset would have never worked there. We had to truly become one team and by
the end of our time there, we had all learned to be very selfless individuals,” Mobley said.

He added, “This trip is the most rewarding thing that I have ever been a part of. It truly
took me back to the roots that all cooperatives are connected to.... providing electric service where
others wouldn’t and partnering with communities to serve them in the best way we can.”