What made you decide to go back to Guastatoya after the January trip?

They'd had this generation plant that had been offline for I don't know how long, the hydro plant. I looked around and I saw that they needed the thing online. They're kind of strapped for money down there. So I told them I can hook this up for you. It's not that big a deal. So that's what I went back to do.

How did it go?

Well, we achieved what we wanted to achieve. We got the generator working. But they're trying to synchronize it with the grid, and they're having some problems with that. I told them, "Why not just find out how much load you got, take it off the grid and generate it here?" But they didn't want to do that.

I was a little discouraged. But you get a good feeling when you help people out, and I felt good that I went down there.

How were the living conditions?

I grew up in the country. Like the Beverly Hillbillies. I'd feel right at home with Jed and Granny. And I'll be right honest, that helped me in Guatemala, because it's like going back in time about 60 or 70 years from where we're at right now.

But those people down there, they're really happy. They don't have the stresses that we have up here. It's just not there.

How about the working conditions?

It's real labor-intensive work that they do. They do everything by hand. They set poles by hand. They dig holes with shovels. That was interesting to see how they do that. So we ended up doing everything the hard way. But whenever you're in a situation like that, you always come up with a way to do it.

And the men down there, they're good guys. They just need a little bit of basic lineman training.

How did you feel getting on that plane the first time?

I was sitting in Dallas in January in the airport, and I met the other volunteers from northern Illinois there. We were taxiing out to the runway, and I'm sitting there thinking, "Boy, Mark, what have you got yourself into now? Here you are, you're about to leave the United States, and you're going to a foreign country. You don't speak the language. You don't know what to expect." I wasn't really worried, but, you know, I was concerned.

And what did you tell yourself to feel better about it?

I told myself this is two weeks. You know, if it's bad, it's bad. But if it's two weeks, I can suffer two weeks.

Looking back, were those anxieties valid?

Nah. We had a good time. Everybody got along. I got along with the linemen down there. They kind of adopted us, and we kind of adopted them. I couldn't speak their language, but we made do. We had two or three that could speak a fair amount of English. We made it. We got by.

Yeah, I'd go.

The people down there just need a little help. And I feel like I've always enjoyed going and seeing different things. I've been to Guatemala now, and I can talk with a degree of knowledge about how things are down there. It's an experience. Nobody can tell you what it's like to do something. You just got to go do it and see what it's like.

If anybody asked you about volunteering overseas, what would you say to them?

I'd tell them go.

A lot of people are scared of the unknown. But you get by. You know, no matter what, you get by.

I've told some guys up here who are thinking about volunteering, if you want to go, I'll go with you. I've even been thinking that I wouldn't mind, after I retire, going down there for two or three months and just helping those guys out.

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