Cotton Candy In The Air

I am in a cyber cafe in Polanco, that affluent district near the Museum of Anthropology.  I walked through nearby Chapultepec Park on the way and stopped to wander in the bird area of the zoo, where I saw a few of my faves, especially peacocks, including a white peacock, and a golden pheasant.  On the way out I sat on a shaded bench where I was joined by a lady pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair and the elderly gentleman she was also escorting.  We had an enjoyable chat for a while, then I went for a walk in Polanco which is full of pricey stores, restaurants and cafes.  Even in this cybercafe I am paying fifty pesos for an hour or four and a half dollars Canadian, while in Coyoacan it´s around one dollar or a dollar fifty.  Even food prices in Mexico City are almost as high as in Canada.  Given that the average income here is less than twenty grand a year I really wonder how they cope here.  I am trying to supplement the meagre portions I am eating in restaurants and cafes by buying fruit, mostly oranges or bananas, and nuts.  I have noticed that my appetite is often fairly low when I am on holidays and I will likely again be losing some weight this month.
     Taking the Metro subway here from Coyoacan wasn´t quite the endurance test that it was yesterday.  It takes getting used to but it is a wonderful way to engage with the everyday people who live here even if we don´t talk to each other.  It is a great place for people watching.  Often in the stations there are people begging, old women, indigenous women with small children, men with disabilities.  One man had so many dreadful wounds on his partially amputated legs that I would shudder to describe what I saw.
     While I was waiting for the interminably long traffic light to change while trying to cross Reforma in order to get from one part of the park to the other there was a man working with a cotton candy machine.  The breeze was causing bits and scraps of cotton candy to go flying in the air around me and other bystanders and it was kind of fun harvesting the cotton candy bits from the air and eating them.  The gentleman was kind enough to not charge us for them!  Then, on my way into Polanco I walked by once again the memorial statue of Mahatma Ghandi which accurately features every one of his ribs.  Well, he was one for power fasting, eh?  I have always deeply admired Ghandi and in many ways he has been like a role model for me, but I draw the line at fasting, especially as a way to force my will on others, though I expect his motives were considerably higher.  I do find it kind of interesting and a bit incongruous to find his memorial statue here in Mexico, given that there doesn´t appear to be a clear historical, philosophical or cultural connection here, especially given this country´s history and legacy of violence.  In a Spanish conversation group I am part of in Vancouver we were talking about the subject of peace and social justice in Latin America and that there were never any role models for peaceful resistance or protest in those countries which likely accounts for the many blood-drenched conflicts that have occurred here.