4th of July and Hazlehurst!

I know this is a week late but for the Fourth of July, a bunch of us spent the day in Hazlehurst!  There are 18 new TFA teachers at Hazlehurst (K-8) and I think 15 of us were there for the Fourth.  We drove down Tuesday night and had a big slumber party!  Two of the girls at Hazlehurst already signed leases at an apartment complex in Byram, about 20 minutes north of Hazlehurst and so we all crashed on the floor. 

We got up Wednesday and I went with a couple of girls to drive around Hazlehurst and look for houses for rent.  We saw a lot of for sale signs and a lot of completely empty houses but none for rent.  We did get a good feel for the community and it was so fun to just so cool to drive around the area that I am going to be living and teaching in for the next 2 years!  Hazlehurst was having a big 4^th of July celebration sponsored by First Baptist Church at Lake Hazle.  They had free food and live music and other little games and activities for kids.  We met a lot of people who were so excited that we are coming!  Also got some numbers of people to call about housing in the area.  One of the second year corps members was there and she took us on a tour of the school after we left the celebration.  We didn’t get to go in the school but we looked in windows and asked her lots of questions.  We had to be at summer school really early the next morning so we left around 7 to drive back the 3 hours to Cleveland.

Thursday was when the real excitement happened!! My future roommate, Angie, had asked her mom to make a few calls to a lady she had talked to previously about housing in Hazlehurst since we’d be at school all day.  Around 11 am, Angie showed me a text message from her mom saying to praise the Lord because she found a 3 bedroom house for rent in the country part of Hazlehurst!  We are super excited and immediately tried looking it up online.  Unfortunately, the address is not the physical address so when we typed it in, it took us to a random field.  We weren’t able to actually see it until Saturday when we drove down.  The last renter was evicted because they hadn’t paid rent in like a year so the house was kind of in a mess; but the guy who owns it said they were going to have it professionally cleaned and fixed up before we move in.  The only bad part is that they cannot legally change the locks and start doing anything until July 23^rd so that means we’ll be bumming floors off of people for probably a week.  It is also not furnished at all so we’ve been checking out Craig’s List a lot for couches, beds, TV’s, and washers/dryers. 

In addition to having a house now, Institute is winding down.  We only have two more days with the babies and then the Memphis, Nashville, Louisiana, and Alabama corps go back to their regions and we start our First Eight Weeks Kick Off on Sunday.  We only have four days of F8WKO and it will be full of brainstorming, vision writing, and planning for our classrooms in August.  Then, I am headed back to GA for a week before officially moving to Mississippi and starting my first year of teaching!!!   I am super excited about yet another transition but am also going to miss my Institute experience and all of the incredible people I have met.  Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement throughout this summer.  It has been such a learning experience and at times a challenge.  I know that it has truly helped prepare me for August and develop me into a transformational teacher!!

Our house! 2029 W. Gallatin Road, Hazlehurst, MS

This was from Google Earth and was taken when the original owner lived there.  The landscape does not look quite this nice right now but it will soon hopefully!  Angie took most of the pictures on the inside so maybe I can get them from her and post them later.