"the thing had become a neighborhood affair"what role did that neighbor play in the incident of the scorpion bite?

In Chapter One, having heard the baby's screams, Kino's brother, Juan Tomas, and his fat wife Apolonia enter with their children. Juana orders them to find a doctor. The doctor never comes to their cluster of brush houses, so Juana decides to go to the doctor herself. The event becomes a neighborhood affair, for Juan Tomas and Apolonia accompany them and even the beggars in front of the church follow Juana as she marches toward the doctor. From the text we can infer that the "neighborhood" accompanied them as onlookers..... people wanting to know what happened and curious as to the result.