Del. woman flees Russian offensive

When she and other Peace Corps volunteers traveled to the Republic of Georgia in June, Lindsey Harris of Newark, Del., was planning to teach English classes there.

She never expected to find herself in a war, with Russian troops invading, towns seized and her Peace Corps group forced to flee to nearby mountains, then across the border.

Yesterday, in a quick cell phone call to her mother, Harris, 21, shared news of her long, exhausting bus trip from Georgia to the safety of Armenia.

"I think they're glad to be out, and they're also concerned for their Georgian friends and their families," said Lindsey Harris' mother, Amy, 52, of Newark.

"It's hard to imagine going back, but they've invested time and have relationships with the people so I know, in their hearts, they want to go back," Amy Harris said.

Lindsey Harris joined the Peace Corps and traveled with 46 other volunteers to Georgia after graduating from Elon University in Elon, N.C., this spring.

The music performance and English literature major already had helped the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and taught English to children in Guatemala in school-sponsored programs.

Lindsey Harris "is drawn to helping people and was nearly finished her training in Georgia" when the fighting broke out, said her mother. "She was teaching some local kids and was about to start her two-year commitment there."

But late Thursday, after a Georgian offensive to regain control of the province of South Ossetia, which had been under Moscow's protection, Russia began to flex its military muscle.

Shelling and air strikes forced Georgian troops to flee South Ossetia's provincial capital of Tskhinvali. And yesterday, Russian troops invaded Georgia from the breakaway province of Abkhazia, to the west.

"As the tensions were rising on Thursday night and Friday morning, the Peace Corps gathered its members together - first the 47 trainees [including Lindsey Harris], and then 38 other volunteers who were already working in the country," said Amy Harris.

"They were far enough away from the fighting not to hear it, but the Georgian people from the city of Gori who were training [the Peace Corps volunteers] saw homes and apartment buildings lost."

The volunteers were taken from areas around the Georgian capital of Tbilisi to a ski resort at a nearby mountain. Georgia, a U.S. ally, borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia and was ruled by Moscow for nearly 200 years before the breakup of the Soviet Union.

"When she got to the ski resort on Saturday, she said, 'Mom, it was like being on vacation. I got a hot shower,' " said Amy Harris. "She said she was sitting on a balcony at the resort, reading a book, and found it hard to imagine that there was bombing just 20 miles away."

From the resort, about 85 Peace Corps volunteers, including Lindsey Harris, began an unexpectedly long journey to Armenia in two buses.

"They thought it would have taken five hours but after 10 hours, they had only made it two-thirds of the way," said Amy Harris, who was expecting to hear from her daughter via e-mail.

Lindsey Harris "was pretty cool when I talked to her [from the bus]. I feel more comfortable now. But I know she's saddened by what's happened. The Georgian people were excited about rebuilding their country."