Nicaragua Trip More Than Just an Adventure

Robert Hamilton, a young Santa Monica pediatrician, received a call from a friend, a physician in New York.

Go to Nicaragua with me, she said. She was going to Managua to work at a church-sponsored medical clinic that depends on visiting American doctors.

Hamilton knew the stakes. Five years ago, when he was still completing his residency, he had gone to Guatemala to observe work in a children’s hospital. It changed the way he looked at the world. When he began his own practice, and an affluent mother worried about her 1-year-old rejecting certain vegetables, Hamilton could point out with some authenticity that this was not malnutrition.

Now, at 34, he would go to Nicaragua for 10 days and do what he could. This was not political, he told his friends and his patients. It was simply a chance to help.

And a funny thing started to happen. The more Hamilton talked about the trip in his outgoing, enthusiastic, rapid-fire manner, the more people wanted to help. The more they wanted to go with him.

Gerri Coons, a nurse in his office, signed up. So did one of the partners in his pediatric group, Dr. John Tarle. So did another nurse he knew at a Kaiser-Permanente hospital. And a photographer. And a pharmacist. And one of Hamilton’s patients.

“A friend of mine who also goes to him told me about it the day before I brought my kid in for an appointment,” said Elizabeth Tucker, a 32-year-old radio producer and mother of two from Bel-Air. “I like adventure. I love adventure. I’d heard so much about Nicaragua on the news, it’s compelling when you hear someone is going. When I went in the next morning I didn’t even say ‘Hi.’ I said, ‘I want to go with you!’ ”

Tucker isn’t sure what she’ll be doing at the clinic. She expects to help organize the pharmacy but is ready for anything. “I’m the free agent. I’ll go wherever I’m needed.”

“I’ve really been touched by this,” Hamilton said Wednesday morning as the office began to fill with mothers and children. “I never went on the bandwagon about this.” For validation, he turned to Tarle. “Did I go on the bandwagon?”

“You were very enthusiastic,” Tarle said with intentional restraint.

An East Coast foundation Tucker was familiar with gave money. Another friend of Hamilton’s who wanted to go but couldn’t gave $1,000. Other people walked into his office and brought clothing. Some brought money. Several pharmaceutical representatives who regularly visit Hamilton’s medical group asked their companies for help, raising thousands of dollars worth of supplies.

In all, Hamilton, his 12-year-old son, Josh and the 16 others who fly out of Los Angeles tonight will take with them between $7,000 and $10,000 in money, clothing and supplies.

“We couldn’t just come down without bringing these sorts of things,” Hamilton said. “They have nothing down there. They have not even the basics of life, things we don’t think twice about here. If you bring your daughter to me here, I may write you a prescription and you go fill it and pay the $30 and maybe grumble about the cost under your breath. If I go to Nicaragua and write a prescription, those people will look at me like I’m from the moon.”

The small party that ventures to Managua will be among hundreds of Americans who have gone to Nicaragua to lend technical and professional help during the civil war. Many of such visitors have been sponsored by pro-Sandinista groups. Hamilton’s group is not one of these. The journey, he said, has nothing to do with politics. The deepest motivation, he said, opening a Bible, is spiritual. He reads from John 16:33: “. . . In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

The travelers got together Tuesday night for a party at Hamilton’s house. There, Gerri Coons said something that Hamilton is still thinking about.

“She said that she felt very American going down to Nicaragua, that Americans have always reached out to the world. I think that’s true. I do look at this as being an ambassador.”

He glanced at Tarle and smiled. “John asked me if I was going down there with the Sandinistas or the Contras. I said I’m going with Jesus. The rhetoric is one thing--Sandinista rhetoric, Contra rhetoric. But when you have an outpouring of support like this, it speaks loud. Pretty soon after we get there the medicine will be gone. But if we can leave hope, that will be a more permanent thing.”