P.E.I. teacher joins Ukrainian friends on trip home as war passes 2-year mark

Jennifer Holdway had heard stories of what life was like in Ukraine after Russia launched its invasion almost two years ago from her friends Elina Salabai and Polina Salabay, who moved to Prince Edward Island in April 2022.

Holdway works as an EAL teacher (English as an Additional Language) in the public school system, often with children who have been displaced by war. These days, that includes many from Ukraine.

When her friends told Holdway they were returning to Lviv in January 2024 to sell the family home, she asked to join them.

“I have students from Ukraine, and also students who come from countries experiencing war and conflict, and I wanted to understand, at least in some small way, what that might be like for them,” she said. “I certainly can’t understand their experiences, but at least maybe experience a bit for myself.”

Holdway said they saw evidence of the war everywhere they looked in Lviv, the city in western Ukraine where Salabai and Salabay used to live.

She described “an odd sense of normalcy and not” as they travelled around the city.

The “very surreal” experience included “going about the daily routine of buying groceries, of getting gas, of having appointments, and then walking by schools that have been damaged by drone strikes; driving down the street and seeing buildings where the entire side of the building is shattered because of missile strikes; and just seeing everywhere you look, basically, the evidence of war.”

‘I felt scared’

Polina Salabay and her mother, meanwhile, are coping with the emotions from making arrangements to sell the house in Lviv, now that they have made the choice to stay in Canada.

“We would like to go back home when the war is done, but it’s already going on for two years,” said Salabay. “No one knows when it will finish, and we can’t wait for a long time, and know if we will get back or not.”

Salabay said the local McDonald’s restaurant they visited even had a notice describing what people should do if there was an air alarm.

“It was explosions and air alarms every day and it was very strong missile attacks,” she said. “I felt scared a little bit. But people are living their life there somehow.”

They’re trying to live in the moment. It’s difficult for them to think about the future, to plan anything.​​​​​​ — Polina Salabay

She said people back home are trying to live in the moment, given how difficult it is to think about the future, or plan anything.

“People got a little bit more sad, maybe in some cases angry.”

Going back to Ukraine after 2 years, with a P.E.I. friend as witness

A mother and daughter from Lviv are back in Prince Edward Island after an emotional trip home to sell their house. ‘Here on P.E.I., in Canada, you are safe. Everything is good for you… But you feel guilty that you are not there.’

Emotional visit

All three said visiting a military cemetery in Lviv was the most emotional part of the trip. The cemetery didn’t even exist when Salabai and Salabay left the city, a few months after Russia’s attack launched the war.

“You’re just walking around the cemetery, [seeing] a lot of graves of very young people of my age, younger than me,” Salabay said. “It’s all like fresh graves, like just recently, half a year, months ago, a few days ago.”

Salabay said she has friends, and friends of friends, who have died during the two years of fighting, and past classmates who are now on the front line.

She said it was hard to pack up and go when their two weeks in Ukraine ended.

“It’s difficult to leave because you are going to a safe place, and you will know that here on P.E.I., in Canada, you are safe. Everything is good for you,” Salabay said.

“But you feel guilty that you are not there, that you are living [a] normal life but your friends can’t live this normal life, unfortunately.”

War is not over

Elina Salabai said she too was struck by the changes in her country.

She wants people on Prince Edward Island to realize that the war is not over, even when it occasionally fades from the headlines.

“In Ukraine right now, very terrible situation. Ukraine needs help. Ukraine needs money. Ukraine needs donation[s] from people,” Salabai said.

She too mentioned the trip to the cemetery as being overwhelmingly emotional.

“A lot of men, and women the same age my children,” Salabai said. “It’s very difficult. These young people died.”

As for Holdway, she said she is still processing what she experienced during the trip.

“To be honest, I think I’m still making sense of it. It was a lot of information to take in, very heavy.”

But now, she said, “I can empathize with maybe the confusion that my students might bring when they’re trying to get into school and learning.”

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress-Prince Edward Island Branch is hosting a solidarity march on Saturday, Feb. 24, at noon at Charlottetown City Hall to mark the second anniversary of the war.