美国国家公共电台 NPR For Many Navajos, Getting Hooked Up To The Power Grid Can Be Life-Changing

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

In much of the United States, thousands of Native Americans are living without some basic necessities like electricity or running water. A new poll shows more than a quarter of Native Americans living in rural areas have had problems with basic infrastructure¹, including electricity or water or high-speed Internet, which is becoming quite basic, of course. On Navajo lands in the southwestern U.S., utility crews from around this country are now volunteering their time to install power. Laurel Morales of member station KJZZ reports.

LAUREL MORALES, BYLINE²: Neda Billie has been waiting to turn on lights in her home for 15 years.

NEDA BILLIE: We've been (laughter) - we've been living off those propane lanterns.

MORALES: Did you ever think this day would come?

BILLIE: Not really. Now we don't have to have flashlights everywhere. All the kids have a flashlight, so when they get up in the middle of the night, like, to use the restroom, they have a flashlight to go to and...

MORALES: To go to the outhouse.

BILLIE: Yes.

MORALES: Billie, her husband and their five kids live in a tiny, one-room hogan, a traditional Navajo home. Their three sheep graze on sagebrush that carpets the rolling hills of Dilkon, Ariz., on the largest reservation in the country. They watch two men in a cherry picker hook up the last wire to their home. Billie says they've gone through too many generators³ to count.

BILLIE: My two boys, they have really bad allergies⁴, and they have asthma⁵. So sometimes they need the nebulizer, so we usually go to my mom's house; travel in the middle of the night over there, back and forth⁶.

MORALES: The Billies are not alone. About 1 in 10 Navajos live without electricity, and as many as 40% of the tribe has to haul their water and use outhouses. A poll of rural Americans, conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found more than a quarter of Native Americans have experienced problems with electricity, water and the Internet.

Northern Arizona University professor Manley Begay, who is Navajo, says the numbers are probably even higher. Begay says he recently saw something strange when he pulled into a hotel parking lot in Window Rock, the capital of the Navajo Nation. He noticed a bunch of teenagers in their cars.

MANLEY BEGAY: You could tell that they were high school students, and so they were doing their homework outside of this hotel, where...

MORALES: In the parking lot.

BEGAY: In the parking lot.

MORALES: (Laughter).

BEGAY: You know, and they had the light on in their cars and doing their homework, you know. And it became quite clear that they didn't have the Internet.

MORALES: Outside the Billie's home, the couple waits patiently for the crew to finish the job. Brian Cooper from PNM Electric has an update.

BRIAN COOPER: So we're just waiting on them to energize⁷ that one to energize your power. Can't wait to see the real smile here in a minute.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: See? Don't cover it up; I want to see it. That's what joy looks like, right?

MORALES: Cooper travelled from New Mexico, along with several other crews from around the country, volunteering their time to connect people like the Billies to the power grid⁸. On the Navajo Nation, the homes are so spread out it costs, on average, $40,000 dollars to hook up one home to the grid. And half the tribe is unemployed⁹, so you can't raise rates to energize all those homes. The Navajo Tribal¹⁰ Utility Authority and the nonprofit American Public Power Association have put a call out to utilities across the country to help.

COOPER: I had no idea that, you know, there was people still in 2019 without power.

MORALES: Finally, after waiting for so many years, the Billies watched the foreman turn on the meter behind their house and snap the cover shut. Neda then runs inside to flip¹¹ the switch.

BILLIE: It's so exciting to finally have electricity here after so many years without it. My kids are going to be so happy. They keep asking every day. They go, Mom, we're going to have light. We're going to finally have light (laughter).

MORALES: Now the family will wait and pray for running water and Internet.

For NPR News, I'm Laura Morales in Flagstaff.

(SOUNDBITE OF TANGENTS' "OORT CLOUD")

1 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 allergies   

n.[医]过敏症；[口]厌恶，反感；（对食物、花粉、虫咬等的）过敏症( allergy的名词复数 )；变态反应，变应性

参考例句：

• Food allergies can result in an enormous variety of different symptoms. 食物过敏会引发很多不同的症状。 来自辞典例句
• Let us, however, examine one of the most common allergies; hayfever. 现在让我们来看看最常见的变态反应的一种--枯草热。 来自辞典例句

5 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

6 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

7 energize   

vt.给予(某人或某物)精力、能量

参考例句：

• It is used to energize the city.它的作用是为城市供给能量。
• This is a great way to energize yourself and give yourself more power!这种方法非常棒，可以激活你的能量，让你有更多的活力！

8 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

9 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

10 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

11 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。