Water Runaway Me Eyes

This morning, I made a 'costly mistake', I cursorily checked through the pattern of the 40,000 visitors to our website here, for the month of March 2007. The price I paid for that 'mistake' were tears of joy, that welled out of my eyes, when I saw the mammoth crowd of visitors all over the world from the geo location map of Google Analytics (above).

I had always thought that Nigerians, and other Africans, were my dominant visitors who read the gardener's daughter. It was a shock to me when I found visitors originating from 253 cities, districts and county areas, from over 41 states of the U.S.A. I also saw visitors from 63 regions and 23 cities of the U.K. Not done yet, I saw Europe became dotted with a swarm of telenovela fans like bees, who visit this blog, as could be seen from the map above.

I knew Nigeria had a chunk of my traffic, but I never knew visitors from 18 states and innumerable cities, towns, villages were my visitors. I knew that a high population of Lagos axis came but I never knew there were 33 diverse areas of Lagos who visit this telenovela garden.

Please, hold your laughter and don't mock my ignorance, where in Nigeria is Ankpa and Keffi? I know of Zaria, Kaduna, Kano, Benin Sapele, Umuahia, Uyo, Enugu, Offa, Ilorin, Dutse, Awka, Ibadan, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Osogbo, Ondo, Bauchi, but I was embarrassed with my ignorance of Arigbabu, Ijagbon, Oresanya, Mobo, Magboro, all in Ogun State. Abeokuta was easily identified along with Ikenne, Ogere, Owode, Isheri, Mosimi.

I salute all the 33 areas of Lagos megacity - Lekki, Mushin, Ogudu, Coker, Tinubu, Igbobi, Iwaya, Ofin, Ikeja, Ikorodu, Oregun, Obanikoro, Apapa, Ojota, Sogunle, Oke-Ira, Oshodi, Abule- Ijesha, Onigbongbo, Okoko, Magbon, Idi-oro, Omole, Orile and Lagos metropolis, ... Whao, that's a telenovela army! No wonder unconfirmed rumour mills whispered that the tripartite of AIT, the Banks and CMA, smiled home with 51 million Naira each (a token U$D 400,000), at the end of Cuando Seas Mia, last year. How much would they go home with, at the end of La Hija del Jardinero? your guess.

From the corner of my living room, I wonder, who are these people? I am just a housewife and mother of three children, trading my passion for glory, but I never knew I had this much people in our modest telenovela community.

It was like Jack Bauer and Chloe of 24 Hour thriller fame monitoring movements on computer through satelite.

For example I knew Cherish visits from Huston, but I never knew that 20 other cities, counties and towns in the state of Texas alone visit this blog. Who are you out there, in San Antonio, Dallas, Irving, Fort Worth, Midland, Brownsville, Beaumont, Austin, Leander, Mound, Richmond, Thomsons, Portland, Paluxy, El Paso, Mission, Coppell, Grand Praire and Mesquite? I thought TGD was mainly an African affair, since it was being shown in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa.

I knew mamaJ is our friend from the U.K, but I was shocked to see 63 areas of U.K, including 23 cities and innumerable counties, visiting this blog to track TGD. Who are these fellas from London, Warwickshire, Bromley, Slough, Buckinghamshire, and other shires, too numerous to list, Merseyside, Bristol, Bradford, St.Helens, Milton Keynes, Havering, Somerset, Aberdeen City, Redbridge, Conventry, North and South Tyneside, Portsmouth, Cardiff, Newham, Kent, Stockport, Sheffield, Manchester, Essex, Birmingham, Windsor and Maidenhead, Brent, Hackney, Derby, etc

Many of this places, I have never heard of, and would never visit. That is the power of an idea exploded on the internet! I never thought that my passion for blogging stories, which essentially is, what telenovela blogging is all about. It never crossed my mind that 40,000 people would visit my works from over a hundred nations on a monthly basis. That was awesome for a jolly good housewife pounding the key of a P.C connected to the internet. I AM HUMBLED!

This would only spur me to achieve more. 91% of this crowd came because of the gardener's daughter telenovela. My real ambition this year, as you already know, is to have 20 best telenovelas posted on this blog. We are still 5% of that target, and that is a genuine failure so far, and not even a pass mark.

I am afraid what the statistical picture would be if we can even achieve a 50% success of this goal. All this noise and talk is just on one and a half (Esmeralda was less than half), telenovelas so far!

So, to you all our friends and particularly the old gardeners, who have turned this blog to a kind of social interaction (network) site and the enthusiatic new ones who have identified with our humble but noble efforts, I salute, Hail!