Sherikat is a combination of many small activities that add up to bigger ones and of course, there is nowhere in South Sudan where people are happier than Sherikat.
You don’t find that joy in Amarat or Juba-na-Bari or Jebel, where most of the country’s wealthy politicians live. Here, it takes bravery to smile. To dream and to believe that it is going to work, even when the signs are not very clear.
You don’t find that happiness in Beverly Hills or San Francisco, where some of the world’s richest individuals live.
But for the Sherikat people, there are many problems, from violence crimes to economic hardships but in spite of all the pain, the people of Sherikat have found ways to manage their problems with ease and are happy through it, even when the government is absent in their lives. They organize their programs with their resources.
Just before 2015, this Sherikat was a small part of Juba but because the government didn’t want it to expand, the brokers, mostly cattle keepers, those who cannot read or write, men who moved to the city straight from the village, saw an opportunity and started surveying the land the way they wanted and people started buying. Today the suburb is growing rapidly and the middlemen are making millions out of it. That is a short story of Sherikat.
For the past few months, Juba has been witnessing series of youth elections and most of them happened in Sherikat. You see small girls and boys running on the roads, causing traffics as they support their leaders. Even the boda-boda riders, hard working young men, caught in the jam just smiled.
The J.1 men, politicians who lived far away from the realities of life are always shocked where these people get the resources to be happy but the truth is, you don’t need to be wealthy to be happy.
It is about getting used to life challenges and having the courage to smile through them. It is bravery, and so, it is the badge every South Sudanese wear and it is how they manage to get through.
The people of Sherikat, with their many problems, did not want to wait for perfect moments. They created them and lived through them with smiles on their faces.
For a number of reasons, everything from waking up in the morning to smiling requires courage because it is always every expensive for most people. Our people are going through a lot but the people of Sherikat have taught us to accept life’s challenges and how to be happy even when it is all messy.
The people of Sherikat have understood something many people in richer places will never understand, there are no perfect moments coming for you. Forget about it. Life will never be better either. You make them yourself. You find joy where you can, even in the middle of many problems.
When you spend time in Sherikat, you start to see life differently. You stop chasing perfection and start appreciating presence. You stop waiting for happiness to come knocking and start creating it with your own little moments. You understand that even if you cannot fix all your problems, you can still have moments that make life worth living.
And maybe this is the biggest lesson Sherikat has to offer South Sudan. That in the middle of struggle and hardships, you can still choose joy. That no matter how messy life gets, there is always room for a smile
The people here are not waiting for a miracle. They are making their own miracles in small, quiet ways. They are proving that even if the road is rough, you can still dance on it. They are reminding us that happiness is not a destination you arrive at. It is something you carry with you, something you build one moment at a time.
So maybe, the meaning of life is to find joy in every little moments, even when there are so many reasons to be sad. Peace.