Disillusionment in Xela

I'm staying in Quetzaltenango also known by its Quiche name Xela. It is the 2nd largest city in Guatemala with all of 150,000 people. It is now day 5 in the country and I apologize for not putting up anything about the first 4 days. I had a great start but I'm alittle disillusioned with the city right now. There are way more foreigners than I expected... i picked xela to try to avoid that. It's alittle impersonal being in a city, and it's really polluted. My problem is I need to spend less time with the gringos and find a way to make friends with the locals.

Anyways, the real issue of the day:
Last night I was walking down the street with some of the gringos I'd met the day before. We passed a Quiche woman lying down in the street with a man sitting on a step beside her. She looked unconcsious or close to it. We kept walking until she screamed and we turned around and he was hitting her and trying to drag her body down the street. There were 6-7 Guatemalan men standing around watching and in my group there were 4 guys and 1 other girl. They also stood there watching and one said we should keep walking there was nothing we could do. I asked if they were seriously going to walk away and do nothing. One of them walked up to one the Guatemalan men, tried to ask something then walked away. He started kicking her and I couldn't take it anymore and walked back down the street. For those of you who would be mad at me, I could not live with myself if I had walked away and left her. I also had 4 guys with me who would have had my back. Anyways, when I reached them he sat down on the step so I knelt beside the woman and took her hand. He started crying and told me she didn't speak Spanish, only Quiche and that she was his "woman" (don't know if this means wife) and she wouldn't go home with him. He said he had her shoes and was trying to get her home but she wouldn't move and he kept saying over and over that he didn't know what to do. He hit her again across the face, and I told him not to and he stopped and said okay. I asked if he wanted help and he said yes. He was still crying and mumbling when the police showed up shortly after. Once the police got there and started asking questions we left. I was shaking, I was so angry. How do 10 grown men stand around watching a woman taking a beating? Is this machismo? Not having the guts to do anything but stand around watching like a coward?

I realize that what I did was unsafe and that God was really there watching after me. And I've already been thorougly lectured by my homestay mom on how dangerous it was, ,what could have happened, what the circumstances could have been, why not to help, etc etc etc. At the same time though, how can you justify walking away? I can't see Jesus leaving some woman lying in the street. And again, I did have a group with me. (also, for those worried about me being here by myself, my homestay was shocked and said that does happen in the villages alot, but not in the city, it was extremely abnormal)

Anyways, I guess I'd like a few opinions on whether I did the right thing or was just being completely stupid, but please avoid the lectures, i've already heard it.