Fund-raising update

I have finally got around to gathering together all the various cheques and remaining coins that have trickled (and, occasionally, surged) in over the past couple of months, and done some adding up. The conclusion of which is that the grand total raised from the Leicester Dress-in-Purple day was far underestimated when first announced at school and in a thank-you letter to all the boys in Leicester, and is in fact a massive £718.65! A huge thank you to all of Leicester, and their very generous friends and family!

Secondly, the overall total so far has therefore been updated, and comes up to £2498.57, or 63.25% (4s.f.) of what I need to get to Guyana.

Again, more news planned shortly; next big piece of which will be the ball, which is rapidly coming together, and just requires tickets to be sold.

Google me!

More news in a later post (there’s lots! – especially many thanks to the Warner clan for the many and generous donations!); however, just to highlight a happy surprise: while some people may spend hundreds and tweak their websites as much as they can to get a good position on Google when people search for them, my Just Giving website, without any intention on my part, comes up first when you search for “Benedict Warner” on Google! Now I just need to make my name world-famous.

Nomenclature Misnomer

From that source of all knowledge, the Lonely Planet guide South America on a shoestring:

According to Dr Mark Plotkin, the area of the Guianas takes its name from an English corruption of the Spanish spelling of a Surinamese Indian tribe. ‘Wayana’ is the correct name, but the Spanish wrote it as ‘Juayana’ or ‘Guayana’, and the English misread it as ‘Guyana’. The name does not mean ‘Land of Many Waters’, as is often alleged.

Oops.