Tara Richards

There were many challenging aspects of Tara Richards' recent trip to El Salvador: sweltering temperatures, limited running water and fighting the risk of infection.

But compared to the food, those were nothing.

Military Meals Ready to Eat were the daily specials on Richards' two-week humanitarian health care mission.

"If I never eat another MRE, it will be OK," Richards said with a laugh.

Richards, a civil engineer with Rochester & Associates in Gainesville, also is a captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

In early June, she and 27 reservists with the 315th Aerospace Medicine Squadron from Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina undertook a two-week humanitarian health care mission to El Salvador.

They were joined by medical military professionals from Arizona, New York and Washington.

"It's nice to be a part of something that's got good heart," Richards said.

The mission was designated as a Medical Readiness Exercise and Training Exercise, a short-term drill designed to provide health care and preventative medicine education to underserved civilian populations overseas.

Richards and her unit volunteered to go on the mission, which took nine to 12 months of planning.

Throughout the mission, the team treated patients at four municipalities in the state of Cabanas, El Salvador: Jutiapa, Santa Lucia, Tujutepque and Victoria.

Richards said El Salvador has a high crime rate. Because of that, her team had to travel with armed guards everywhere it went, even to eat or make a call from a pay phone.

"When we went to Jutiapa, we were especially worried," Richards said.

Jutiapa had never before allowed any type of federal aid, not even from the government of El Salvador.

"The first day, we were all a little nervous," Richards said.

After that, however, plans went smoothly, and she said the people were appreciative of the work the team was doing.

During the 10 days they worked, Richards and her team treated some 8,850 patients. Services provided included: general medicine, dentistry, optometry, pediatrics and preventative medicine.

The group saw cases ranging from coughs and colds to malaria, scabies and even various cancers.

"We just saw a little bit of everything," Richards said.

They gave out 1,300 pairs of glasses and the dentists saw about 500 patients and pulled more than 1,000 teeth.

"A lot of things in two weeks time we couldn't treat," Richards said. "(However) there were things we could treat quickly and easily."

The group mostly treated women and children.

Richards recalled one woman who gave her hand-painted pots in appreciation for their care.

One family of four walked three days from Honduras just to receive health care.

Richards said she enjoyed the experience and working with the government of El Salvador.

"Their military has been fighting alongside us in Iraq since the very beginning," she said. "It was also rewarding just helping the people."

But being in El Salvador wasn't easy.

The team had running water for 30 minutes each day. Members had to ask to have power in the military compound in which they stayed, so that they could run fans at night, where the coolest temperatures were about 95 degrees.

During the day, temperatures soared to a scorching 110 degrees.

"We'd sweat so much we'd have salt stains on our clothes," Richards said.

Eight people had to receive fluids due to complications from the heat.

Richards got an infection in her toe, and had to have part of her toenail removed to get rid of the bacteria.

Still, she wouldn't hesitate to go on another trip if given the opportunity.

"I would definitely do another humanitarian mission," she said.

Contact: acox@gainesvilletimes.com, (770) 718-3426

Originally published Monday, June 25, 2007