a strange goodbye to Xela

I had an unusual experience my last night in Xela, after returning from the mountain school and getting ready to leave for Honduras the next morning. I visited a teacher from the Juan Sisay school that evening to install linux on his computer, although I decided to put it off til I could obtain a better installation CD. I'd like to think that I managed to convince him of the wonders of converting to linux, entirely in Spanish, but I'm pretty sure it had more to do with him having a crush on me. Anyways, I was walking back to my hostel at about 11pm, being particularly aware of my surroundings because people in Xela have been talking about the streets being more dangerous at night lately due to some gangs having moved here from Guatemala City. Guatemalans generally go to bed and wake up early, so by 11pm the streets are pretty quiet. A couple blocks ahead, I saw 2 men push someone to the ground in the middle of the street, his head making a loud cracking sound on impact. It didn't seem safe to go attend to first aid, so I rounded a corner and ran, stopping at the nearest restaurant. I explained to a couple employees what I saw and asked them to call the police for me, since I don't feel very confident about speaking Spanish over the phone. They tried phoning 110 (the equivalent of 911) for about 5 minutes, but just kept getting a message. After what seemed like ages, they gave up and I went back to see what was happening back at the scene of the incident. The aggressors were gone and their victim was still lying motionless in the middle of the street, with the occasional car or truck just driving around him. I talked to the man, who was apparently intoxicated, probably with a concussion, but still responsive. He wasn't interested in my help though, until I flagged down (using English) another gringo riding by on a bike. He spoke perfect Spanish and managed to communicate the danger of him lying in the middle of the street. He let us move him to the sidewalk, where he seemed to be as well off as he was going to get tonight. Right afterwards, a 4X4 roared around the corner right where he had been lying, and the other gringo remarked to me, smiling, "just in time" as he rode off. When I checked for our unfortunate amigo again at 8am the next morning, he was gone. In hindsight, he was probably drunk and his 2 aggressors were some punks who thought they'd show off how tough they were by pushing over a drunk and leaving him in the middle of the street. Ay de mi.