Speaker April 20th - Daryl Mills
Daryl Mills was our speaker. Daryl is well known to many club members as he was a member for many years. He now lives in Mt Evelyn and we very much appreciate his long trek to Footscray. He engaged in a much longer trek years ago when Peter McGrath invited him to take part in the Kokoda Track walk. He also let him know that he needed to be a Rotarian to take part. It was only when Daryl got talking to other people during the walk that he found out that not everyone taking part was a Rotarian and that it wasn’t a requirement.
Daryl had a long connection with Rotary and spent many years in Timor Leste where he had to overcome many problems to get support to the right places. There were hold-ups in getting containers cleared which lasted sometimes lasted so long that some items rotted and had to be dumped. Once the containers had been cleared there were difficulties in getting the goods delivered. Roads were poor and at time impassable. Some of the same difficulties remain today especially with roads during the rainy season. The stationery supplies sent by the students at Kensington PS arrived in Dili but as it is still the rainy season can’t be delivered as the roads are too dangerous.