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Today, around 5 p.m., Levi and I rounded the main plaza in Xela and found ourselves sucked in by the bright lights of the city's main cathedral. Levi had me pose in front of the church (a top five on the activity to-do list for fallen Catholics). As I was posing, I spied a mob of angry people across the street, banging on the windows of BanCafe, a recently bankrupted bank in Guatemala, which was one of two banks in Guatemala that gives microloans to women. The bank went bankrupt because some of its higher ups were sending money to the United States. The bank's 12,000 employees have been laid off and those with accounts with less than 10,000 quetzales won't get their money back. (To put that in perspective, that's about a half year's salary for middle class Guatemalans.) Not that it seems to matter how much you have -- Levi's teacher told him that even those with more than Q10,000 haven't seen their money, which they were supposed to get three or four days ago.

As we watched the mob grow larger and angrier, a Catholic procession marched by. About 20 older men were holding up a large, wooden platform carrying a large plastic saint -- was it Joseph? I don't know. Trumpets played, women wept and for just a moment, the crowd quieted down, perhaps as a show of respect.

Fittingly, military men followed the Catholics. A woman standing next to me informed me that these sorts of protests were occurring at BanCafes all over the country.

Otherwise, this is our last weekend in Xela. We celebrated with kids from our school by drinking Gallo (the national brew) in a tienda and dancing at La Paranda, a sweaty, smokey gringo-Guatemalteco dance joint.

We're headed to Nicaragua, where we'll be writing about the presidential elections on November 5. The Central Americans newspapers report that Oliver North (he's still around?!) told the Nicaraguan people that if they vote for Daniel Ortega (HE's still around??!!), they'll suffer consequences. He mentioned sanctions and screwy commerce. Can't the U.S. just leave Nicaragua alone already? And where's Jimmy as all this is going down? (That's right -- Jimmy Carter is also in Nicaragua, but to ensure democratic elections.) I'm telling you, Central America will not quit the '80s.

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel advisory to Americans traveling to Nicaragua. But after reading the news down here, I worry that the Americans are to be more feared than the Nicaraguans. Then again, one of Ortega's people killed a reporter for 'negative' reporting. Oy vey.