After months of stop and go, the new mini-apartments are finished and ready to accommodate our guests. An essential part of our mission, the hostel provides an opportunity for our visiting professors, social workers, volunteers and socially-responsible tourists to live in the cidade baixa, the heart of Salvador’s Afro-Brazilian culture, with all its problems and its wonders. The modest fees we that charge for our lodgings nonetheless provide a substantial share of our income, and with more rooms, we will be able to gradually expand our entire operation. Most importantly, the hostel creates a vibrant community of foreigners and locals, who can socialize and eat together in the large communal kitchen and dining room, or outside on the large patio surrounded by banana and mango trees. The hostel also has the advantage of being in an enclosed area, away from the noisy streets, where our guests can enjoy some relative peace and quiet. The new rooms, all with bathrooms, are located on the far back side of the ICBIE property, so our new buildings now cover three of the four sides of the garden. The fourth side will be developed as soon as we have saved enough money!
