Blogversary and Winners

On this day a year ago, Maarifa the weblog came into being. The reasons & drive behind this have long been obvious to all of my loyal readers composed of close friends (some I've known for nearly 20yrs), family, the wonderful KBW family, my buddies from other web-related affiliations that I am actively engaged in, a couple professional clients and ofcourse not to forget the Web surfers who stumble upon my bloghome.
It has been a very interesting and satisfying 12 months thanks to your regular visits, generous comments & appreciation for the digital photographic art I share with you, sharing your opinion on all my rumblings, your genuine concern when I go/went AWOL (many thanks everybody in KBW!) ... and ofcourse everytime you made me feel welcome in your blog homes cannot go unnoticed.
There's absolutely no way I could overlook the many good things that this interaction, mainly through KBW/NYD/FLM/Afrikblog has brought my way. I am glad to have met an amazing lot of highly talented, funny, caring and creative-minded friends. Many I meet on blogruns, about two dozen also on email, IM and regular calls across states and/or continents. Some of you I've known for countless years [sema mamboz good chica Irena, my kin & kith: Naj, Farouk, Maleeha & Izzo!:)], some I've met several times & with many others shared unedited(LOL!) photos of fun/crazy stuff we get into so we've basically 'seen' each other & we can now attach faces and voices to blogs!
All this has fueled the engines behind the growth of both Maarifa (and its affiliate bilingual site: Tafsiri which in turn marks its 1st anniversary in 3 weeks) and akiey the blogger and for that I say a very big Thank You! For sticking around & enjoying the ride with me:)!

NB: I would quickly run out of space & wearout my fingerprints trying to elaborate why I like some blogs & bloggers, so here's a quick glimpse of my top blogs and my most fav lined up over there.
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To celebrate this day, I share with you the 3 winners of the two (long overdue) posts that had everyone trying to figure about The Mvita Don's modus operandi and the food this blogger made & shared with friends. Thanks everybody for participating in this brainstorm activty:)
and so..... the winners are:

I made this collage of the 3 Maasai girls from 3 diff pics to honour the often taken for granted cultural magnificence of the Maasai culture and to congratulate the 3 ladies below that got the answers right. KBW guys didn't seem to fare too well so I look forward to you doing better next time guys!

The Chops For Days Post on Tafsiri:
The winner: Mshairi, my 1st blogfriend whose intelligence, brilliance and down-to-earth good nature (I know many out there would agree with me) gives one that deja vu feeling of having known her in another lifetime. She gave the dish one quick look & without hesitating figured it was octopus stew gravy that was on made & shared that evening. Let me know what kind of photo edit you'd like done. Muchas gracias querida!

The Mvita Don Post: to the two winners go a photo of their choice so see me in my chambers please:)

1st winner: Guess, that avid blogger who had no inside info but one that relied on her photographic memory and used her "skewed brain... that...can read upside down, right to left, right to left upside down" to easily and accurately figure out about 95% of Don Mvita's MO as well as his tools of trade & 'hits'. Congrats!

2nd winner: K.i.d.a.d.a, the shy, yet risktaking, creative writer of a blogger who knows people that know this blogger better than she'd want to admit (total balaa!) also blew the competition thanks to her probing skills, arm-twisting & info extracting tacticts. Only flaw was a small mistep in the tools of trade but she got it very right with the 'hits':