Former Evansville resident Kathy Bailey tries to locate friends in war-torn Ukraine

Kathy Bailey has heard all about the ballistic missile attacks pounding Chernihiv.

Serving as a Peace Corps volunteer English teacher in the Ukraine a few years ago, Bailey was unable to get in contact with her former host family during Russia’s invasion attempt in the past week.

Nevertheless, Bailey, a former Evansville resident, remains steadfast in her belief that they’re OK. Members of her host family were living in Chernihiv, a city of 285,000 in northern Ukraine, but may have fled.

"I can’t get hold of the family," Bailey said. "I stayed with them. I trust that they found their way to safety."

She admits the situation in the city, 150 kilometers north of Kyiv, is kind of scary.

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"They are highly educated. I have to trust that they got out with their three children," said Bailey, a current resident of Boulder, Colorado who lived in Newburgh as well as Evansville and attended the University of Southern Indiana.

Bailey, who landed in Ukraine among the 60 countries offered by the Peace Corps, studied language and culture her first three months in Chernihiv in 2016.

"Before any of this, one of the first things I noticed about the Ukrainian people is they are resourceful and resilient," she said. "They can take nothing and make it something."

Bailey is heartened by the way the vast majority of the world has rallied behind Ukraine and that Russians are protesting President Vladimir Putin's action in never-before-seen numbers.

"They are risking their lives," Bailey said.

After the Russian uprising in Ukraine in 2014, which resulted in a series of violent events involving protestors, riot police and unknown shooters in the Ukrainian capital, the Peace Corps did not allow its members to travel there for safety reasons.

Bailey, however, was part of the second group to return to Ukraine, serving in the Peace Corps, teaching English to first through 11th graders from March 2016 to June 2019 at her school in Solotvyno.

"It is cold, but the people are so welcoming," she said. "Something I didn’t know is they are very highly educated. The majority of the parents all want their children to go to university (college)."

Bailey enjoyed her stay so much she twice returned to Ukraine as a visitor, from October to December 2019 and January to March 2021. She is devastated by Russia's aggression.

"It’s heartbreaking, still," Bailey said. "They’re still suffering and still scared. People are getting killed."

Contact Gordon Engelhardt by email at gordon.engelhardt@courierpress.com and follow him on Twitter @EngGordon.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville woman worked Peace Corps has faith amid Russia Ukraine war