Presented at Darren’s ‘celebration of life’, July 10th 2008.

My name is Rob, or to most Corky. I was fortunate enough to work with Darren and Beck in Arusha for the past 10 months. It’s difficult to explain what this time was like, so I’ll start by letting one of the community have the first words.


This message is from the sister of Darren’s neighbour in Tanzania. A women he had rarely spoken to, but a women like so many of us has been touched by Darrens big heart and kindness. For the past week, words like those have echoed around Arusha in Tanzania where Daz was completing his fws passion.

For all of us here today and many others around Australia, Daz will be missed, with each of us being thankful for what ever contact we had with him.

However, it feels impossible for me to put in words the impact that Darren has had on so many lives in Tanzania. The impact on the local community has been a huge and powerful one. For the last week our house and building site have become communal grounds where our Tanzanian friends and neighbours can go to mourn. Just yesterday I spoke to Darren’s close friend Nalasco and was told how the local Luthern and Roman Catholic communities are coming together each afternoon for 9 days to pray for Darren and the fws project. According to Mudi, who has learnt so much from Daz in the last 12 months and will miss him as much as anyone, the African Flame Tree that the community helped us to plant last week in Dazs’ honour is in danger of drowning due to the attention that it is getting. And yesterday, Aggy, our lasagne chef extraordinaire and great friend to Daz, called me to offer the well wishes of all the fws mamas, despite the fact that she had only enough phone credit for a 5 second call.

But when we return to Tanzania, it will be the good times with Daz that we and the community will remember. How proud Darren was when ‘Little Mudi’ came to the house to borrow Daz’s tools to make his family a coffee table and his 4 year old boy a bed, a project that 10 months before would have been completely out of the technical and financial capabilities to complete. How Darren watched Peter Tosh grow from merely a great digger and a man who managed to get his head regularly stuck, to one of Daz’s prized right hand men on the circular saw. And having Roger Moore proudly tell Darren that ‘he no longer needs to issue instructions in Swahili, as he now speaks English’. And something that is so important to Darren is how proud the community are for the work that they have completed along side each other to build this amazing project that has and will continue to be a central part of their lives.

Darren had a big sense of pride every time one of the labouers learned a new skill or showed any sign of improvement. Daz had an amazing skill for building up relationships with people he couldn’t even speak to. He had this Daz aura that gave off amazing vibes or strength, a big heart and a guy that cared about all aspects of his life and of those around him, no matter what language they were speaking

And these amazing, cross-cultural relationships go well beyond the labourers that he worked and developed his own language with. Whether sitting with the village elders in the evenings and sharing BBQ’d goat, helping our mamas one-by-one to cross a swollen stream. Or taking the rock solid, emotionless, 4 year old ‘mini Juma’ for a driving lesson after he had waved to Daz every day, morning and afternoon without fail for the past 12 months. It is these interactions that all of us in Tanzania will remember, and it is these that helped to paint each individual picture of Daz that we’ll keep forever.

Daz, I can’t imagine what it will be like to return to Tanzania to continue the project without you mate. They are just such big boots to fill. Over the past 10 months, you, Beck, I and so many amazing volunteers have been through so much together. No matter how difficult things have been, you’ve always been quick to offer a word of support, provide a different angle to approach a problem or simply crack open a nicely chilled Beer Eagle and a packet of Pringles – that maybe you’d even share. You have amazed me with you strength to achieve what you have in building Kesho Leo in Tanzania, and with so little guidance. You have been such a fun aspect of our project – I’ve never seen someone behave so maturely in pass-the-parcel when there were snickers bars at stake, nor have I seen someone so badly affected by fairy poison. Daz, you were you own man and every volunteer who has met you will take away something different.

On behalf of all those you’ve touched in Tanzania and through fws – myself, all the volunteers, all our Tanzanian staff, and the Arusha community, thanks for the amazing opportunity to know and work alongside you. It’s been unforgettable.