……people in Tunisia do not have superstitions about pictures taking away their souls—yessssss!

My morning started out in Le Kef, Tunisia. The scene? Me running up and down three flights of stairs in a hotel looking for an empty bathroom—-it took me about 40 minutes to find one and lots of times up and down the stairs. (I’m leaving a lot of details out of that story)

We ended up walking the streets in the mountain town, starting our walk outside of a junior high. There were about 150 junior highers on the street, all eager to find out what language we spoke and if we had any candy. =) We hung out there for a while, talked with them and took pictures. As we walked away we acquired a group of four friends, about 13 year old girls who giggled us all the way up small mountain staircase to some Roman ruins. We explored those and I smiled as I thought about how all 13 year olds girls are the same in every country—the whisper, giggle and run back and forth and then do it all over.

We winded our way down from the ancient site and walked through alleys of quiet neighborhoods with carpets hanging from windows and ended up in a bakery kitchen taking pictures of the staff who were really friendly and gave us some awesome cake. We got lots of kisses on the cheek from local women who were gracious and very sweet. We even kept meeting up with junior high friends throughout the town all morning.

We met a friend for lunch at “Planet Food”, a shop modeled after Planet Hollywood. I ate a beef schwarma with Leonardo Dicaprio looking down on me and drank some hand squeezed orange juice. It was a good morning in Tunisia.

We’ve been traveling so much via cars, trains and planes…we’ve hardly had time to sit down to reflect on all that we are seeing. Tunisia is really amazing with TONS and TONS and TONS of young people everywhere—50% of the country is under the age of 25 and it is obvious as we travel. Anyone want to come impact some teenagers lives—this is the place!

Author Profile:  Shannon Varis is a public speaker and international photographer who has traveled to several continents with her camera in tow, capturing the sights of Africa, Europe, Asia as well as all parts of the United States. Everyone that knows her confirms her words, "I am an expert at making something out of almost nothing." Three words that describe her-- passionate, creative, encourager. Her interests include: family, community, graphic design, art, traveling, volleyball, beaches, mountains, coffee, throwing parties, dessert, snowboarding, making things, my mac, my nephews, learning the violin & french, learning to live like Jesus. Her photography can be seen at http://www.redcouchphoto.com Read more from this author