Bangalore meets banana bread...

A cool breeze swept through our apartment this morning, pleasantly awaking Steph and me around 6:30am. After journaling and a granola bar, we headed town to Mackey's apartment to gameplan for the day. A gorgeous woman wrapped in a maroon sari greeted us at the door, and while I stood admiring her beauty, Steph exclaimed, "Gowramma, its been so long! How are you?!", embracing her friend. The three of us sat outside with Nellie on the porch, discussing Nellie's spotting of "parrots" (at least birds she claimed looked and acted like parrots) yesterday and laughing about Bangalore's lack of extention cords that left Nellie no choice but to make one herself. As we chatted, I passed out pieces of the vegan banana bread I had made the night before, asking for honest feedback. Nellie said "perfectly nice," Steph said "pretty good", and Gowramma took one pinch and then shriveled her nose saying, "Not like. Need more spice." I said AWESOME. Indians dont like banana bread. Good thing I'm not trying to start a banana bread bakery here in Bangalore cuz that could be a problem...

Gowramma, Steph, and I went back to our apartment to try and alter the recipe to Gowramma's taste, and I was saying prayer after prayer under my breath, hoping we would come up with SOMETHING, or my project could just turn into an epic failure. With an extra cup of sugar, an extra two bananas that were extra ripe, and calling our concoction "banana CAKE," Gowramma was smiling and wobbling her head back in forth, the Indian way of saying "yes" or "good." Just for fun, I suggested we try and make "spicy" bread, baking another loaf with just one banana but a few teaspoons of a combination of Indian spices called Garam Masala. Dipping my spoon into the bowl and pulling out a generous helping, I licked the spoon clean and thought, "Hmm. I can't test the spice." Well 6.3 seconds later I was coughing and rummaging around the refrigerator for water, wiping the sweat beads that were forming on my brow, silently cursing the chilli powder that poisoned the aftertaste. Conclusion: Indian spices in banana bread are a bad idea. Who would have thought? Probably any other normal human being could have told you that it was going to taste horrible...Not my brightest moment.

I spent the rest of the afternoon sharing the banana bread with the other women working on the jewelry, and they wobbled their heads in approval. YAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!! I have a recipe that works, women that like it, and an oven that is hopefully being delivered tomorrow... we'll see about that...

Today, while Stephanie and I worked with the women, David Moore met with several property owners to try and secure a new training center/ home for Rahab's Rope programs. He found one apartment that he liked with 5 bedrooms and 2 finished baths with 1 unfinished bath. Adding in the cost to remodel the unfinished bath, David asked the owner if the plumbing in the bath had been completed, and his response was that he would not be allowed to change the bath for superstitious reasons. Puzzled but flexible, David agreed and then asked the man what time he wanted to meet tomorrow to talk things over. The man responded and said he didn't do business on Tuesdays for superstitious reasons. Apparently, many Indians are superstitious and serious about their superstitions...