After Malaga we met up with Will’s friend Ariel in Valencia. Together we all checked out a castle, saw the place where the holy grail “allegedly” was at in the cathedral, went to the aquarium (Will’s BIG DAY! Will’s BIG DAY! Will’s BIG DAY!), attempted to go to a futbol game (we bought tickets for the wrong game :/), watched Othello at the Teatre de Principle, watched the flamenco de Seville, went to the beach and ate paella (while watching the races from the motocross contest being held in town…oh, and we were sitting next to some guys who were in the races earlier in the day. No big deal. Oooooh, in case you were wondering…it was my First time having paella. Loved the original. Not feeling the seafood one..Sorry bout it.) And we went to the art museum!
Wow. Looking back at it. We did SO MUCH. And we were there only 2 days. And of course we kept the “Tapas Tour 2013” alive, and ate just about every three hours. All day. Everyday.
After another round of beers…I mean tapas, we went to one of the art museums in Valencia. We spent hours looking at portraitsand artifacts from another time and place. Portraits of religion, nature, and political figures. In all we saw, one stood out. It was a painting called “Amor de Madre” (Mother’s Love) by Antonio Muñoz Degraín.
The painting was a depiction of the pain and sacrifice of a mother holding her child up from a flood to save their life. It was quite a powerful image, and overwhelmingly relevant as we have all heard stories of the typhoon in the Philippines…with the death tolls top over 6,000. And I wonder: How many mothers made this sacrifice? Fathers? Grandparents? How many loved ones?
The image of the painting really struck a cord with me. It reminded me why I volunteer for ISLA. This is why we do what we do. We teach. We save lives. This is who we are and I love being a part of it.