I was born barefoot on a jagged rock in a black land with black men. I was born in Nigeria. That's my country. Like the production of a film, each scene is influenced by the actors and ah yes, setting as well. My movie is not any different, or unique in any way. Except that to see the face of each actor, you would have to go behind the scenes, where we were unfurled and free, basking in the consciousness of life and existence. I am no baby or child or boy or man. I'm just a little voice crying in the wilderness, telling of what we have seen, shouting our experience. I am only human. When I and the boys were born, mother bought us no diapers or wipes like the other kids from tomorrow. We were settled with loincloths that would be removed when soiled, to be washed and worn again. We never slept in the rocking cot or stood in the walking trainers. So we had to crawl on fours till our feet were strong enough to walk us. And yes we would fall. Big, heavy falls and yes we would stand up with tears, and we would walk again. When I and the boys were younger. We were bought no toys or action figures like the kids from yesterday. We had to settle for sticks and fingers and stones and rocks. Coming home each day with a bruise or two. Wailing out loud to mother who would bathe and clean our wounds and send us out to bring in some more again. We had no tasty food or snacks or sweets so we would go to Mr. Bello's store, and buy some with our snatch and speed. And his belt would smile at us. And the welts on our backs would tell us that we did the right thing. When the mobile phone came around, I mean within our reach. I and the boys would go to the home of the only boy who had one, and we would sit around him, our eyes fixated upon the wonder in his palm. He would press some buttons and we would see a little man in green fighting against another in blue. He would press some more buttons and we would witness the lady with the white skin take off her clothes, and walk around in her birthday suit and a man would come around, dressed in the same attire. And they would do things together that would spread warm smiles on our faces. When I and the boys were older, we loved em female girls. The ones who would let us take off their dresses, and do things when mother wasn't home. We each had a girl, special to each of us. And things were rough. Yesterday I cried over Maria, as she called at night and told me she was no longer my girl and how she let one of the other boys from tomorrow take off her dress. He gave her money she said. What have I ever given her? I bit on my lip as the tears flowed. Yes, I cried. And tomorrow, I will cry again over Marianne or Sophia. Yesterday, Maestro died. He was felled with bullets by some of the other boys from yesterday. The streets are not too safe, especially for me and the boys. His mother cried so much, deep tears of anguish and resentment. We didn't cry for Maestro, but we may cry for Aluta or Robin or me when we fall tomorrow. I and the boys met social media about a year ago. He introduced himself to us and he was all warm and smiling. But now he seems to bite us in the back with sharp teeth, the earlier friendliness seems all forgotten. He's very scheming. Knows how to cause much havoc, especially amongst me and the boys. I enjoy him sometimes. Most times I would say. He even killed a girl last summer, when he showed everyone her pictures of her hidden regions. I never saw her after that. We all never did. I and the boys take some drinks. It keeps us happy, makes us feel better, makes us forget, all the worries and pains. Fredrick would say with some smoke in his lungs "I like to get high, cos I love the view from up here." And we would all laugh and drink some more. Grades at school don't matter to me and the boys. But it matters much to our parents, so we try to get some good ones, or at least okay ones. Fashion matters a lot, the latest Sneakers, coolest jeans and shirts. The girls love the guys who look good. So we try to keep up with the trend. That's what happened in that scene of my movie and more which you would learn of from others like me. That's what happened when I had hopped aboard older ship. Do you like my movie yet? Maybe you do, maybe you don't. Just stick around and watch some more. Maybe you will see some Experience. When I and the boys are dead, we would pass just like the rest. We made no impact, struck no blow on this generation. That's what some time behind some bars taught me, that's what he told me through the silence and solitude. So now I change. The boys are gone now. It's just me. Now I teach, the little tots. Guide them right, lecture them of good. Let's see what their generation creates. Mine is already fading fast away, as dust in the wind.

My home is known as a little country. It's so small that you usually get problem while trying to find it on a map. People say they never heard of it. They say people from my country cannot be what they want because they live in poor or because little country is underdeveloped. Well, I live in a beautiful country, with big lakes, long rivers, high mountains and strong people. But, in this twentieth year of twenty first century something changed and is still changing my view. This is the first time that someone came in my world, my environment, that I don't want to be friend with. This is the first time that someone came into my world, my city, and became that popular, but introduced itself just after killing so many people. Now it's around us. In our neighbourhood, our stores. It is all around us. In our air, knocks on our doors. That is our new passenger, it walks and it breathes. That passenger wants you, not your things. First time i heard how its' name, I thought it was a big joke. It got born in China. There are dead in China, there are surviving in China. It came to Italy and swam in the sea. Now it is in France and it tried their food. After while it drank coffee in Serbia, it flew over many countries and then. Corona virus is here. It was Tuesday, many portals, web sites, pages, news said that the next two weeks we have no school. To be honest, I was really happy because, the next day I would have math exam. In the first place, it wasn't that scary. The only problem I had was my brother. He was in Italy as a student and hung out with some people who had a flew at that time. On his birthday, he got a fever, high temperature, throat pain. My mom freaked out. My dad, who usually does not show his emotions, was really scared and dispirited. I have to brag that I also got a hug from him after a long time. One morning we got the call, brother does not have a virus. You can say you do not care because it is not close to you. You can try and maybe pray, there is nothing else what you can do. We are here, now we are in a fight, this passenger kills all day and night. Four months before my brother will come home, I had to decide what to do with the time that is given to me. Two weeks I was isolated, I was at home, just reading books and listening to some music. Of course I had online school, which was insane. Many times I had exams on my computer and I would be stressed out . Dad was going to work with mask and glows. Mom can get sick fast so, she did not go out. They were mostly scared about their son, even if he does not have a virus he is there and we are here. When school finished, I passed with great grades. My fitness coach has said that we should make a pause. I can not function without my trainings. With time, sunny days came and at least three times at week I went on six-kilometres-long trail with hills. I have my own workout routine, with my own list of songs.The passenger is still here, maybe could not buy a ticket to go home. Where is its' home, here is not its' place but, I think it does not know. Humans are still awake, we want to ask you to go, that is all we want to say. Huge windows in my apartment are really there for a reason. I exercise my eyes through them. I can see the main street, people with masks, kids, thirsty dogs and a lot of cars. One day I went with my dad to the store. We wanted to buy a bottle of oil. While we were waiting, there was a family with bags of two hundred kilos of flour. It was really strange but at least funny. We still have a lot of flour bags at home. Usually I am not drinking any juices, but somehow I stopped with sweets and bread. I read many books and have started with the music I listened before. Lyrics of their songs are amazing. I watched many films too, I am a huge filmochobic. Love for writing have never left me. Actually, during quarantine, I opened up my heart more and, even if I was in between „four walls“ my eyes saw more than before. I realised that I do not need to travel the world to see a miracle, I need to find one place, one person, one song or maybe one book to feel a miracle. Since I was ten I have been writing songs, but this year I started with English songs. Passenger still walks through our city, probably it likes it. Maybe melody should visit us and help. We need the real words to destroy it, not dog's yelp. So, my home is still known as a little country. I still have my name, my home and family. My eyes are with me too. My hands did not betray me, I write even more. Imagination is my best friend. I am truly sorry for everyone who lost someone in this time. . We can use this time to live, sometimes maybe smile. We can use this time to think, maybe stay on someone's side. This passenger does not want to go. I am pretty sure it stayed with us for too long, but we will outsmart it. We are persistent and strong.

I was a normal not-so-happy 19 year old girl with so much hope for a better future and I was quite excited because exams were drawing near (crazy right?)but I wasn't excited about the exams per say, it was more about the fact that after exams, I was supposed to be going for my six months industrial training and that was a good thing because I was going to make some money plus I love being in a work environment and I was looking forward to those six month of meeting new people, being away from home and school, being independent and the thought that after these glorious productive months, I was going to be entering my final year in school after all the delays I had faced due to interruptions caused by school riots and strikes and honestly, I was beginning to get anxious about everything. On the 18th day of March 2020, my world came crashing down right before my eyes. I am not exaggerating! Ok, first, in my school, we hardly ever have electricity or television time but that particular day, we had electricity and I went to my neighbour's house to watch television and catch up with what going on in the world and just then I tuned to CNN and I was met with the most horrible news I ever heard in my lifetime and that was the fast spreading mysterious disease from China, COVID-19. The news particularly said that countries were shutting down schools and worship centres and I knew at that point that this year was going to be the worst after all. On the 20th day of March, my country Nigeria, declared all schools and worship centres closed till further notice and my mum sent for me to come home immediately. This was how it all started. Now, I knew I was going to be at home for a while due to the pandemic so I had to come with a strategy to make my stay at home less traumatic. This was going to be me staying at home 24/7 with my mum. So my approach was to read a lot and just do my chores without being reminded, basically to avoid getting in trouble with my mum. It was going on well, me going about my chores and burying myself in books and my phone just basically avoiding her. Things were looking different in a good way for me; the house was over stocked with food so there was no need to go out. I broke up with my ex whom I dated for 5 years, thing is, I never really loved him and I've never even kissed him because he schools in a different state but he was so good to me and he was crazy about me for some reason I can't still understand so I felt I should date him. After breakup, I started talking to this new guy and he was so cool we were always texting and he recently graduated from my school so he asked me out and in the spur of the moment, I accepted two days after I broke up with my ex. Almost immediately after accepting, I started to feel unsure about my decision because I knew that I didn't love him and he was a good guy, I couldn't afford to hurt him but at the same time, this was the same situation with my ex. Just then, my other ex, (my first sex partner ever, the only guy I literally ever loved but fucked things up because I get scared every time I get too happy because I feel it'll end so soon and I'll be back to being sad and the I'd feel like a fool.) he somehow popped on my phone and we started talking and I realised that I might still have strong feelings for him plus my immediate ex was still begging me to take him back and my boss was also proposing a relationship. At this point, I had to be the most confused person alive considering the fact that I'm not a person that is used to display of emotions and all, so I was kind of just flowing with everyone. Then there was an incident where my neighbour was beating up his wife and everyone was just quiet ignoring but my mum went over to their house and started a fight with the man, he threatened her and they exchanged words. Well of course, through all this, my mum never had a reason to hit us or shout or any of that up until my sister told her that she was lagging behind on her online test and that set my mum off. She started cursing her and shouting at her and hitting her also and my sis, being under attack obviously went for defense but this aggravated the situation all the more and she became physical. Cutting off my sister's natural beautiful hair and my sis wanted to leave at that point, I had to intercede and beg both parties to act reasonably and the whole situation was pacified that day. But from then, it was clash after clash between both of them and I was the middle man which meant me taking most of the punches and once more, we're back to misery. My pandemic experience so far has been horrible and I really can't wait for all this to be over or for the world to end already.