With to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, the local guides program means self-actualization. A feeling of content, self-importance and social responsibility to the entire global community. I keep recieving emails about how my pictures are setting records on google maps and reaching people all over and that warms my heart. Living a simple life as an extroverted introvert, I usually keep to myself and in most cases, I may not know to how to help people in need especially when it comes to simple things such as directions to a particular location. I often come across tourists in Kampala with huge maps, struggling to find a particular and trying to communicate with the locals for direction. In most cases, for whatever reason, they find it hard to approach any and every one they encounter.
A few months ago, I met a German tourist on the streets of Kampala and he was stuck with this extremely outdated paper map of the city and the place he was supposed to go to had changed location so google maps was leading him in an opposite direction and the paper map did not even have it listed. He told me everyone he tried to talk to was directing him in different directions. What particularly caught my attention and had me pissed at myself was that I had been to that same office a few days and I had not remembered to check out google maps and probably update the location. I managed to direct him to the location but I felt so guilty that a few days later, I went back to that place and updated the location on google maps.
Now just imagine, if I had updated google maps, they would have kept his earphones in as google assistant guided him to his destination avoiding unnecessary human contact, confusion and stereotyping all over town. Often, I assume that even platforms like Uber, Lyft, Bolt and our very own initiative in Uganda called Safe Boda use data from google for driver navigation and if this is so, then I am pretty sure there are locations for which I helped a driver find his/her way. Such instances are what give me a sense of self-actualization and this is what the Local Guides Program feels like in my small world.