Being a local guide has enabled me to take part in many activities and workshops across my country since I joined the program. The Local guides program has brought change, growth and development not only to businesses in Kenya but also to us Kenyan local guides.
I remember when we hosted our first Kenyan meet up in Nairobi back in 2017 without a clue how the program would impact our lives. It is my continued involvement that keeps on giving me a clue what the program is all about. The program has brought a huge change in my country by enabling local guides to put most of the places on google maps, through this it has even become easier to find your way within small towns because the program acts like a roadmap to local businesses. I have learned so much about google maps including its amazing features that keep on popping up e.g Street view among other simple but helpful features like the “nearby searches.”
Looking back at some of the insights of my contributions gives me an overview of how my contributions have helped people find great places around them. One of my awesome contributions is a photo that I added at the Arbor Place restaurant in Nairobi that has over one million views . Getting one million views in my region for a single photo is not an easy task, this only happens when you take the right photo of a place considering all angles and important aspects of the place. I believe greater photos drive people to a business since they are able to see the right pictures of how the business looks like, and in return it means a lot to the respective place/business as far as growth is concerned.
I also love the way the program has helped me develop my life in different ways; I have interacted with different people and fellow local guides as a result of the community meet ups and workshops, thus enabling me to learn a lot from them. Through the knowledge I acquired from fellow local guides I was able to start a You Tube Channel under Travel and events with an aim of sharing some of the social places in my country. #KisumuWithGoogleMaps is the best meet up and campaign that I have taken part in as a local guide since it was aimed at improving maps within my local community (Kisumu). This was a two day campaign organized and sponsored by Google Kenya to help add small businesses in Kisumu on google maps.
