First Electricity in northwest Guatemala

[David]

I was scanning some old pictures last week and came across this. It sure brought back memories.

 

We lived in this little village called San Miguel Acatán. There were 2,000 indians there, all without running water or electricity.

 

We bought this generator and Dad and I hooked it up and made it all work.

 

 

It was a 2-cylinder diesel with huge fly wheels. A belt ran off the smaller wheel, stepped down to a generator we glommed off something. This futher mucker has so much compression that you could break your arm starting it.

 

I got it to 60 cycles by plugging an old turntable into the generator and counting 33 1/3 revolutions (I was pretty proud of that idea).

 

We wired the house with 110 and 12 volt. The generator would run only an hour or two a day, meanwhile charging up the deep cycle marine batteries. Then we'd run lights off those batteries most of the time. It was pretty important to conserve fuel--we had to bring it ourselves in 55-gallon drums in the back of the Suburban for a 6-hour haul to the nearest fuel station.

 

We were the only people in all NW Guatemala that had electricity.

[Mike]

That is pretty darned cool . . . I know that these experiences in Guatemala shaped your whole life.

[KevinH]

What internet site did you order it from?

 

Do you think it's still there and in use?

[David]

I braved a trip back in '05, and the adobe shed was still there but the generator was gone. Stolen by guerillas, probably.

[Rocer]

 

Great story and picture David.

 

I hope we cross paths somewhere down the line as I'd like to hear more about your life in Guatemala. We were also there in 05, to visit my daughter who was in school there, and have been fascinated with the place ever since. My favourite Sun. brunch is still a "Tipico".

 

I'd be interested in you flushing out your comment "I braved a trip back..."

[David]

I'd be interested in you flushing out your comment "I braved a trip back..."

 

There's still a lot of guerilla activity, and that's how we were run out, so it's a very lawless country. Besides the possibility of getting killed, there's the whole driving and getting robbed thing.

 

Anyway, I felt like it had calmed down enough, and our oldest son wanted to see where I grew up, so we braved it, much to my wife's displeasure.

 

We did get hit by a bus.

 

 

..and run across these guerillas. But we both spoke Spanish and a little humor on our part had them rolling in laughter and they didn't seem to want to harm us at all.

 

 

You can see the demolished home behind me here:

 

 

And digging through the rubble, I even found some of my earliest toys, undisturbed from 30 years earlier:

 

 

What was your daughter studying? Was it in Guate?

[bakerzdosen]

You can see the demolished home behind me here:

 

Wait... which one are you? And which one's your son?

 

That picture kinda summarizes how I feel walking around here in Peru. (Other than I won't have to check that little "I visited a farm" box when I land in Atlanta.)

 

Thanks for posting the pic(s). That is interesting all around.

[Rocer]

Again, great pictures - especially the group picture.

 

My daughter just graduated with her MB International Studies (with minors in Spanish and French) from University of Botswana. She has schooled in Canada, Mexico, India, Guatemala (Antigua) and Botswana as well as a year teaching in Japan. She plans on continuing on her PHD here in Canada. It's amazing how our 'kids' draw us out of our comfortable neighbourhoods into the world. Your comments on guns and guerillas brought back many memories of our short stay in that beautiful country.

 

Guatemala was such an eye opener for us, and as mentioned, always garners our attention. I've followed your travel posts with much interest and envy. You lead an interesting life.

[David]

I'm not a tall guy (5'10.5" or so), but you can imagine what my Dad (6'4") looked like in that crowd!