It started with a phone call from Ajim - to help Hj Ambotola in his quest to raise fund to build a hostel for 80 orphans in Tawau, Sabah so that they don't have to walk for miles or even hours to attend school. And so the Rayyaj net in Semenanjung started to spread - Raja Ali, Hasnan, Noor Esah, Hashim, Ajim, Saiful, Hanita, and finally the whole ANSARA is in it.
Good things spread very fast like wildfire! And the offer of help to spread the words of love for the orphans through the sale of this book is just amazing. But wait! Not so easy. The published date was postponed so many times like a losing football team being stormed by the San Francisco 49ers. Time was just not on our side.
But Arief of PTS publications and his wonderful editor Rashiela persevered until it was safely delivered to author -- today! Wow, I can't fully describe the feelings. I've published children's book before, but this is different. I'd like to say it happened because of Arief and I, but it didn't. It's like a growing fleet of love travelling adrift the South China Sea towards Tawau, growing and growing as it grows closer to the shores of Sabah. It needed time to do so, and it had a mind of its own.
Hj Ambotola once told me that this effort has taught him many new things and found him many new friends; I would add that the feeling doesn't just belong to him. I think for each one of us who has contributed, regardless of whether we feel its big or small, let it be known that your fleet of love has come home to the Rayyaj hostel in Tawau!
HAPPY READING EVERYONE!!
