It Takes A (Global) Village - Thank You

A random visitor map image, showing a partial day last month

There's a proverb that is usually attributed to one African tribe or another that goes "It takes a village to raise a child." I've recently seen it credited to the Nigerian Igbo proverb "Ora na azu nwa", which means it takes the whole community or village to raise a child, but the origin isn't as important here as the thought is.

Bao-Bao's Blog has always been (and always will be) a community effort, and I'll explain how: almost everything I've learned about Thailand has been through the shared thoughts and experiences of those I've come in contact with - here, there, via the printed media and through the labyrinth of the World Wide Web. If it were just myself sitting on my duff and anonymously spouting thoughts as fact it wouldn't have lasted the 10-plus months it's been stumbling along, and I'm grateful for everything I've had the pleasure and privilege to learn from everyone, met or as yet un-met.

This includes those of you who stop in and read my stuff here, and especially those who drop me an email or leave a comment to clarify or share your own experiences and thoughts - and although Thanksgiving has already passed, I wanted to stop and offer my personal thanks to you all.

Regardless of whether you've actually participated or not, I know you're out there... I've seen the numbers. I don't actively track visitor information, but Google itself (hosts and owners of Blogspot) has tracked basic numbers since June 1st, and I'm both humbled and amazed. Since June 1st there have been very close to 30,000 pageloads on this blog, and that's an average of over 150 per day. While that's peanuts to a commercial site, it's a heck of a lot to me. I have no idea what the totals would be if I could see back to the first post in the middle of March.

Depending on the time of day you're reading this, you're quite likely keeping company with a dozen or so others from around the globe. There are at least 50 who return to look in every day - from England, Canada, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, France, Japan, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, the Philippines, the USA and, of course, Thailand.

The blog has regular readers from places I'd never have expected - like the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa, the Grand Canary Islands, Iraq, Nepal, Maldive, Qatar and Kazakhstan. I've put a list of countries I've noted so far at the end of today's post, but I add new countries to it every time I look at the listings. There are also those who defy identification - such as military and "middle of nowhere" visitors that appear near no recognizable places. I welcome them all.

This was never intended to be anything more than a (probably short-lived) place to share about a country, culture and people that I've come to love - but I'm grateful for all of you, every day. Thanks for making this worth the ongoing effort.

VISITORS BY COUNTRY - AS OF 1 DECEMBER, 2010

Africa

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Bangla Desh

Belgium

Bosnia And Herzegovina

Brazil

Brunei

Bulgaria

Cambodia

Canada

Channel Islands (UK Dep)

Chile

Croatia

Czech Republic

Denmark

Ecuador

England

Fiji

Finland

France

Georgia

Germany

Greece

Guam

Hong Kong

India

Indonesia

Iran, Islamic Republic of

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japan

Kazakhstan

Korea, Republic of

Kuwait

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Laos

Latvia

Lebanon

Lithuania

Macao

Madagascar

Malaysia

Maldive (Republic of)

Mexico

Mozambique

Nepal

Netherlands

New Zealand

Nigeria

Norway

Oman

Pakistan

Panama

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Puerto Rico

Qatar

Republic of Mauritius

Romania

Russian Federation

Saudi Arabia

Scotland

Serbia

Singapore

Slovenia

South Africa

Spain

Spain (Grand Canary Islands)

St Vincent / Grenadines

Sweden

Switzerland

Taiwan

Thailand

Tunesia

Turkey

Turkmenistan

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

United Kingdom

United States

Venezuala

Vietnam