My journey to Port-Harcourt for the Inaugural state of the map conference started on the 29th of November 2022 at about 22:30 at Wazobia Bus terminal Gwagwalada, Abuja, Nigeria. The journey was smooth and interesting except for the security personnel (Soldiers, policemen, etc) who mount roadblocks on the road just to collect bribes and allow the passengers to move. it was about 01:35hrs of the 30th of November, that our journey was obstructed due to an early warning from first travelers that “kidnappers/bandits” are operating ahead in Shekere village of lat 7.631233 6.658795 about 1.6KM to prime Polytechnic. Well, it was a bad experience for us all, we continued our journey down to Enugu at about 09:40, we arrived in Enugu and board a car to Port-Hacourt at about 11:55, it’s a journey of about 4HRS+, we arrived at the city of PH at exactly 16:08 tired. Get into our lodge at about 17:20, took a shower, observe my prayers and get ready for D-Day. 1st of December, 2022, it’s an amazing event. I met people of different professions, interact & share ideas, listen to presentations on-site and virtual, learned many new things, discovered a hidden knowledge in me, and much more. Jollof Rice and chicken for launch, Fried rice, and chicken for takeaways. I got myself a coffee, build plantain, and fried egg and was satisfied. In addition The conference gave me the opportunity to meet, connect, collaborate and network with participants from U.S, London, Hong Kong, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Lagos, Oyo, Enugu, Port Harcourt and other part of the world, and it exposes me to different application of OSM data and tools that will enhance my research works. indeed, it was another adventure and opportunity for me. I must appreciate the sincere work of HOT global, HOT unsummit, WNH, LOC members and the Unique Mappers team for offering a travel grant to attend the SotM conference. My gratitude also goes to the national coordinator Mr. Victor Sunday for Leading, guiding, and chairing this awesome work and to the LOC port Harcourt team you guys are wonderful. https://uniquemappers.org/#:~:text=Unique%20Mappers%20Network%20is%20a,and%20Mobile%20data%20collection%20technology

KingVIK VictorNSunday #Uniquemappersteam2022 #SOTMN2022