This year’s summer “vacation” opened her eyes to another world - and even more, to her own world.

Norma Tucker recently traveled to Kenya for the second half of an exchange program that began earlier this year in Georgia.

In March, 14 women came from Kenya as a part of a U.S. State Department program aimed at empowering women in the African nation. The Kenyan delegation made several stops, including a day in LaGrange, to discuss business, education, government, community service and health care.

“LaGrange earned top evaluations in every category. They all felt so welcome,” said Tucker, LaGrange’s first black city councilwoman.

As a result of that experience, Tucker was invited to participate in the second half of the exchange. This summer she spent two weeks meeting with women in Kenya on a trip funded through the State Department.

“The purpose was to exchange ideas for leadership and government experience between women who are already leaders and women who desire to be leaders,” Tucker said. “Kenya just passed a policy that mandates a 30 percent representation of women in Parliament.”

Even with that recent policy change, Kenya’s democracy is still primarily male-dominated.

Each day of the trip, Tucker and her eight companions from Georgia left the resort where they stayed and headed out to see and hear glimpses of a woman’s life in Kenya.

Meeting with Kenya’s first female district counselor - similar to a county commission chairman - Tucker saw the struggle between tradition and a new cultural view.

“This woman told us about all of her works, about her strong connections in the states, then she goes home and it all changes,” Tucker said. “Constituents come to her home to see her and her husband says, ‘Go fix my dinner.’ While she cooks, the people tell him what they want. Sometimes he tells her what they said, sometimes he doesn’t.”

On another day, visiting a Maasai village, Tucker was surprised by her tears.

The village was a square of mud huts with an open courtyard. A goat’s hide was drying while flies hovered around it. Small children played while young girls sat together in a makeshift class. Everyone seemed to have open sores. The flies swarmed those open wounds as well.

There were songs and traditional dances to greet the American visitors to the village. Then the stories of how this village has opened its courtyard to tourists, showing them village life and selling handmade trinkets to support their village.

“You hear how the children can wander away from the village and be killed by a lion or elephant. There is so much disease they battle. You just don’t expect it. That was the day I cried,” Tucker said.

Later, at a girls’ school, Tucker heard of the number of young women who don’t get a full education because they can’t afford feminine products and, therefore, aren’t allowed to attend school five days a month.

At a Nairobi women’s hospital, Tucker met women receiving HIV treatment. She heard the stories of the gender violence recovery center, a part of that hospital.

“They use medications we used 40 years ago,” said Tucker, who has worked in pharmacies while serving with the Navy.

Then there were the giant bugs, zebras, ostriches, leopards and cheetahs and the monkeys falling from the trees.

But throughout the visit, the one question about her own life that rose in Tucker was, “Why?”

“Why was I born an American? Why is it that I can turn on a faucet and brush my teeth without worrying I’ll get a disease that will change my life forever?” she asked. “Why is my life so good?”

Sherri Brown can be reached at sbrown@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 240.