I was looking out the window that summer afternoon. It was as if the trees were inviting me to join in their impromptu(即兴的) dances as they played hide and seek in the misty fog. A strange stillness surrounded me as I sat in the hotel hall, waiting for the taxi to take me to the music camp site. I had flown for sixteen hours to attend a music camp in Michigan for three weeks. Excited more than I was nervous, I felt ready for new meetings.

A week passed like a breeze, and my cello(大提琴) notes were becoming sweeter. I took a break to the school shop with another Chinese friend. As I picked out my newfound favorite American candy bar, I noticed my friend chatting with another Chinese girl. I soon joined in with natural ease, and discovered that we were the only other Asians at the camp. It felt like a good chance that our friendship was formed forever.

During the orchestra rehearsals(排演), Mr. Lastrapes, a genius at discovering the slightest off-key note(走音的音符), persuaded me to relax my tightened arms with his soft voice and gentle manners, thereby allowing me to release notes that I could never create before. We continued to have two hours of rehearsals every day in a large hall that could hold 4,000 people. What we had instead was an audience of ducks and geese outside that swam so freely and happily to our melody(曲调). How an unusual experience I had!

All things, good or bad, must come to an end, when I waited to board the plane, I was looking out the airport window, thinking back at the heartfelt moment of farewell with my friend, Caroline, at the camp gates. We had promised to meet again, but how and when, she was returning to Kentucky, and I, to China. The cello strings were not long or tight enough to keep us connected.

We couldn’t wait to get outside.   Sure, we knew that growing up was to be about going to school and doing homework, but for us the most important thing was having fun.   As soon as school was over, we’d run home, eat something, and rush outside to take care of our real business, hanging about (闲逛) with our friends.   

Hanging about was our time, when we didn’t have to deal with the annoyances (烦事) of the family life.We’d be with our friends traveling the range of our imaginations, inventing a new game with bottle caps.We were ruled only by ourselves and answered to no one but ourselves.   

We played all kinds of games, but most of our activities involved a ball.   City kids played “official” ball games like baseball, football, and basketball but we also had a whole range of less formal ball games to draw upon for fun.   These games had simple rules, needed a few people and took almost no time to get going.The games could be the center point of attention, but they usually occurred while the main event, hanging about, took place.   

That’s how it was, just you and your friends.   It wasn’t about having your mom allow a play date with another mom; it wasn’t about organized sports.   You didn’t need organization, time, planning, or equipment.   You made creative use of the urban landscape.   Fields of play were the sidewalks, streets and walls.   Bases were cars, lamp posts and garbage cans.   Equipment usually was made of some household things, but there was one thing that was necessary: a rubber ball.

I'm Victor Bobra from Belarus. When I was three years old, a nuclear explosion (核爆炸) blew up in Chernobyl, Ukraine. At the time, I was living on the border with Ukraine.When the explosion happened, my dad, was looking after the trucks at the station. When he heard about the disaster, he took us to Brest on the truck. After that, my family moved to Minsk.

Many years have passed since the explosion. Different places were affected differently. If you live in an area like Minsk, it's not as polluted as other areas. Kids there were born normally. Maybe they were underweight or something, but this was because of the problems of the economic situation. If kids were born around the Brest area, they were, born almost perfectly, because it's the cleanest area in Belarus. But if kids were born around the area to the east of Belarus,most of the kids were born deformed (畸形的).

I don't know much about how it has affected my health. But what happened was that everybody had a medical check-up after the disaster. The doctors found that I had got some protein inside me: So they thought there was something wrong with me, and suggested I should be treated.

My mum set up 'a charity, Chernobyl Children Lifeline, which raised some money for me. I've stayed here for treatment since then. The reason I can't go to Belarus is because of the radiation (辐射). If I go back, I might get radiation and get ill. Certainly there isn't any medical care, because the country is very poor. At the moment I can't even see my parents for a holiday. My parents probably miss me. I think the fault (过失) that Chernobyl blew up is the government's.