MTV Shuga: Alone Together brings us back to Naija in this episode.
The first thing we see is Tobi rehearsing what he’ll say when he speaks with Leila. She is talking with her friend, Bongi, but does not want to talk with him. She keeps ignoring his calls and we feel a little sorry for Tobi.
Leila moves on from Tobi’s call and tells Bongi about her funny experience in panic buying supplies before the start of the lockdown. All the while, she is being slightly frantic and cleaning everything within reach with antiseptic wipes – including her shoes.
Leila is obviously very worried about the virus, but Bongi points out that there’s no need to wipe down her house every five minutes if she has been observing lockdown.
Leila admits to being scared out of her mind of getting sick or worse, making someone else get sick. Bongi understands, but tells Leila to be careful of overdosing on information and to focus on the things she can control like staying indoors, washing her hands, not touching her face, and sneezing into her elbow.
Leila still worries about getting sick as a result of the carelessness of others who are not taking similar precautions.
Bongi reminds her that life can be weird sometimes, and mentions her own HIV positive status – she took precautions, but ended up trusting the wrong person, who had also trusted the wrong person. She tells Leila that she is taking things a day at a time, eating healthy, taking her antiretroviral drugs, observing lockdown, and dreaming about the partying she’ll do after the lockdown.
Bongi’s aunt Nomalanga has been assigned to work at a hospital during this crisis period. Bongi tries to fight the worry about her aunt’s exposure to coronavirus by thinking of the survival rate of the people who contract the virus – which is a lot more than the mortality rate.
Leila misses Bongi and wants to hug her, but since they are thousands of miles apart, (and social distancing!) they blow each other a ‘corona kiss’, and Leila has to fight the urge to use her hand sanitiser again!
You can watch episode five here.
Episode six of MTV Shuga: Alone Together will be dropping tonight, and we’re looking forward to catching up with the other characters. What has Wasiu been up to? How will Zamo survive this lockdown?
