Being a Local Guide means public service and a celebration of life!
It has been 3 years now since I started my involvement in the Local Guides Program. Initially, it was just about maximizing my time during commute and me familiarize myself what’s around me and it later become a mission - a public service. I felt that the correct and updated information in Google Maps can save lives, can help people optimize their time, money and effort, it can help small business owners showcase their products/services with my reviews, it can seek help from other people online even if you don’t know them and make connections, it can help a public commuter like me reach the right destination, etc. Back then, before I became savvy in using the internet and the age of smart phones, I always seek help from my father on how to go from point a to point b in Metro Manila. He’s a streetsmart and maybe has memorized the places in Metro Manila when he was young. It has been 10 years now since he passed away, but I feel he’s just near because of Google Maps and I want to return that favor thru the Local Guides program.
Local Guides program is also a celebration of life!
Through my involvement in the program, I’ve learned further about other culture and its diversity. I don’t travel internationally that much and apply for vacation, but when I do I rely on the objective reviews from real people - from my co-local guides who share the same passion as mine. Most of the time, I use the ratings and reviews to verify if the place is really existing or not and visit it myself. It has showed me what other local guides are doing and their reviews in different places here in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore, and other places I plan to go to. It’s like putting pieces to a huge puzzle together with other people across the globe.
Photo of our volunteer activity. Shool brigade of painting walls in public schools.
Photo of my friends in our trip to Hong Kong Disney Land.