Opportunity of a Lifetime

A little over a year ago, shortly after finishing my final year of a powerline technician apprenticeship. The opportunity to be deployed to the Caribbean had been placed in front of me. At the beginning of September 2018, multiple caribbean islands were completely devastated by 2 hurricanes Irma and Maria. Approximately 5 weeks after everything had calmed down, the rioting, violence and the chaos, After speaking with a few people at work and a passport renewal. I was on my way to a group of islands, I never knew existed before work. Flying into the islands, it looked like a pristine tropical paradise.(as per photos from last post) As the plane descended towards the run way the reality of the devastation set in. Im not really not sure how to go about describing this mess, disaster. It was a mixture of the saddest, scariest, most eye opening things, I’ve ever experienced in my whole life. Once the 12 passenger plane had landed, it was time for immigration. Likely the quickest and easiest process i have ever experienced. “Oh you guys are with the electricity?” Stamps passport “get to work” We were off 26 of us had arrived, along with us there was a few other countries that had deployed lineman as well. A few of the countries included Aruba, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. On these islands they don’t use the same equipment we use in here in North America. So the Canadians were set at a little higher standard, as we had equipment shipped down from Canada. The 26 guys were split into 2 teams to cover more ground. Half of the team was sent to the “west end” which was actually the north end of the island, I was part of the “east end” also known as the south end of the island. The island of Tortola, British Virgin Islands is a very mountainous, green lush island, Making some of the rebuilding, a little more difficult then expected. As the time passed, we slowly were being a huge part of rebuilding this island. As the electricity returned, a lot of things come along with that. The progress was unbelievable to watch, a small island came together to help one another . This was my first time ever being involved in this type of work, after a few weeks of hard work, the reward was soon to come. The gratitude and sheer happiness the locals had, knowing we weren’t far from turning their power back on was absolutely outstanding. People crying as you close a switch in, reenergizing the power to people, bringing tears of joy and happiness to their faces. Its pretty hard to be tired and grumpy knowing the satisfaction your bringing to peoples lives. Even a few of us teared up through the process, this is the reward bringing smiles to peoples faces. Not to mention the personal satisfaction/ feel good i received out of this. I am forever grateful for this opportunity and will continue this adventure in Part 2. Cheers