So I will explain my experience with the first meet-up I made in my city (Khartoum) which is: Al-Waha Mall photo walk.
When I submitted the meet-up it was declined for the first time at the end of March, but I tried again and completed requested tasks and then the meet-up approved at the beginning of April which I made on 13th of the month.
When I created the event I thought that there are no active Local Guides in my city so I created an event on Facebook to invite my friends and all who interested in mapping, after that I discovered a whole community of Local Guides in Sudan and I joined their group on Facebook, and posted my meet-up there.
In this period our country was undergoing protests that lasted for 3 months since the end of December 2018, so the interaction of people with the event was not good because they were preoccupied with the political situation in the country.
On April 6 - a week before the event - the organizer of the protests in the country announced civil disobedience in the country before the General Command of the Armed Forces and called on all citizens to respond to him.
As a result of this civil disobedience, many things happened just two days before the event:
On April 11, the armed forces seized power and deposed the president who ruled for 30 years.
On April 12, the president of the coup surrendered to another leader, but the organizer of the protests refused and called for continued civil disobedience.
So, on the day of the event, millions were gathered in front of the Armed Forces Command, and I had two options: either to postpone the event to another day and I did not know when it could be, or to go alone, and I chose it.
I went to the mall alone without being well prepared, my tour began taking photos and videos.
After an hour of roaming 3 friends joined me, they were not involved in the Local Leaders program, so I introduced the Local Guides Presentation to them and explained how it works.
After that, we ate a delicious meal and ice cream, and then we started a photo walk again together.
After the tour, I thanked them for their attendance, and I bid farewell to them, and then I certainly went to the General Command of the Armed Forces to join my brothers in the sit-in.
After the event and my return to the house the next day, I uploaded the pictures on the map, and, fortunately, I got enough points that made me out of level 7.
For the first experience, and despite the weakness of the number of participants in the event, it was a beautiful and distinctive experience and I will benefit from my mistakes and observations to better plan for the coming events.
Here are some of the observations I made:
• When a meet-up created in the city, no emails are sent to Local Guides there, so I suggest to send emails telling LGs about events in their city if they would be interested to join it.
• I found some places I took pictures of it but it doesn’t exist on the map, so I think another meet-up will be needed to add missing places.