Southern Indiana Power lineworker Travis Goffinet joined a crew of 15 other Indiana electric cooperative linemen on a trip to a developing area of Guatemala in March as part of an international initiative to bring electricity to the region.

“Project Indiana: Empowering Global Communities for a Better Tomorrow” electrified the village of El Zapotillo in Huehuetenango where electricity had not been available. The crew spent the second half of March electrifying 60 homes, a school, a church and a clinic with four miles of primary line, 27 miles of secondary line, 36 anchors and six transformers — all by hand and without the aid of modern conveniences, such as bucket trucks.

Goffinet joined Southern Indiana Power in 2000 as an apprentice lineman. He became a journeyman lineman in 2003.

“This experience was truly a blessing,” Goffinet said.

This was the Indiana electric cooperatives’ third trip to Guatemala. In August 2012, 28 Hoosier lineworkers from 17 of Indiana’s electric cooperatives, spent four weeks working across the mountainous terrain to construct more than 20 miles of power lines and bring electricity to three villages. In April 2015, 14 lineworkers battled extreme heat and the rugged land to string 11 miles of wire to connect 76 poles across 2,500 feet of mountains.