My meetup for mapping City Mall started very awkwardly as i stood in the middle of the Mall holding up the Local Guides Flag hoping for other local guides to notice me and find me and after 15 minutes of waiting I decided no one is showing up and started the Solo Meetup. After visiting a few shops and adding them to maps and taking a few pictures of all mall courtyard a security guard came up to me asking what I am doing and demanded I delete the images as the Management refuses taking pictures and I explained to him that I am a local guide and I add business and other point of interest on Maps and I do this as a hobby and how it can help other people, at this point the security guard called his supervisor and had to explain the whole situation. At this point the supervisor took me to the administrator and something amazing happened. The administrator understood what I was doing and instructed the supervisor to take me to their newly opened Gym and Day care play area. I felt so happy because I was already becoming impatient and frustrated that they were not understanding what I do especially when I was so open and shared everything I was doing.
The meetup started off blah but took a turn to the positive when I met the administrator and was given permission to proceed. Note to self and other’s who are reading this - If a meetup is in a Mall or Public Space, its always a good idea to meet the administration so there are less chances of harassment EVEN if the individual shop owners agree with being added to maps.
I managed to add a total of 8 places and correct information to 5 places so I can say it was a successful meetup BUT wait that’s the end of it. I am sure there would have been contributions had I had more people but that also opens opportunity to go again and add more spots in the mall.
Towards the end of my 2 hour Solo Mapping meetup I entered an electronics store and while explaining to the owner I am a local guide a lady and her daughter overheard me and the daughter told her Mum - “Look he is a Local Guide like me!” It was such a wonderful feeling that someone know what a local guide is AND to meet another local guide was completely unexpected. This bumping into another local guide turned into having an early dinner with the two and sharing the whole experience of being a local guide in Tanzania.
Meeting a fellow local guide was the highlight of the whole meetup!
Hope you enjoy reading my recap and looking forward to another exciting Meet-up 
