I am Tatiana Okhuocha from Novopolotsk, Belarus.
In Novopolotsk I went to college and worked as a seamstress. My friend, Svetlana, dated a Nigerian, who was studying at a university in Novopolotsk. Once, Svetlana’s boyfriend asked me to carry a suitcase of clocks from the Novopolotsk clock factory “New Ray” to his brother in Moscow who was returning to Nigeria for the holidays. I agreed because I would get the chance to see Russia’s capital, a life-long dream of mine. It was 1991 – a new Russia was being born.
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7 years old (before 1st grade): Volodya was playing in the courtyard with a girl. A teenage guy started bothering them and ordered the girl to move away from the black-skinned boy. The kids didn’t understand why. At that point the teenager hit Volodya as hard as he could on the head with a hunk of slating. Volodya received a very serious concussion. Even now, the crown of his head hurts badly when he has a temperature (even just a low fever). We lived in a small, industrial town. The population’s cultural level was not very high. Volodya was constantly attacked and ridiculed by teenagers and adults. Eventually, we were forced to leave.
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