Family in Norway, and the Places We are From

Family:

One of my reasons for coming to Norway is already a success. My family in Bergen and surrounding areas has welcomed me entirely. I am just another cousin visiting for the summer, along with the aunts and uncles and cousins that are coming and going this week to Varaldsøy to visit Grandma Marta. And I fit right in with my language skills, too; because there is a 2 year old, the adults are used to teaching small children with great patience! After almost one week, my speaking abilities have improved, as I fill in important words in my nascent vocabulary. While biking around the island today, I stopped and had a 10 minute conversation with a stranger (who knows my family of course).

It is quite amazing to be staying in the house of my great-great-grandfather and grandmother, Severt and Anna Øye. There are photographs of them in my bedroom. There are also photos of all of their children, many of whom emigrated to the United States, among them my great-grandmother Mala. Here it feels commonplace to be connected back through that many generations, and this family knows more about many of my second cousins in the United States than I could have imagined. There are people in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and even in Seattle, who I have never heard of that are all connected back to this place on Varaldsøy.

Perhaps it is the Øye family’s role to keep track of all of the American relatives because they are still tied to the original family land? Or maybe it’s a cultural difference between America and the old world to keep ties to distant relatives alive? All I know is that I feel very fortunate to fit in this place, as the granddaughter of Marta’s cousin Oscar, and to be greeted by my 3rd cousins as someone worthy to be included in the life of the family.

This Place:

I wondered how it would feel to spend time in the place where my great-grandmother grew up. I never knew her, but I believe that our ancestors are directly linked to who we are, and through this experience I hope to understand her and myself better. Being here I do feel a sense of return to a place and part of myself left behind, but that is not the same as feeling at home. A visit is perfect, but it will feel good to return home when the time comes.

But aside from my distant ties to this island, it is fascinating to be in this temperate forest and these fjords, and compare them to Alaska, Washington and what I saw in Chile. I have learned to say “wild salmon” in Norwegian, and whenever I tell someone what I plan to research this year, they say, “Oh!” with a knowing nod, and they begin to tell me what they think of the problems with farmed salmon hurting wild stocks, and what local fish farmer I should go talk to, etc. (And I haven’t even started officially pursuing my studies, yet!)

To finish this posting, here are a few sentences from my journal about the place:
August 4, 2007: Today I went for a walk, and it is beautiful here. Raspberries grow wild! Along with blueberries. Old houses with hand-hewn stone foundations and shingles are nestled among green hills with mossy creeks running through. At dusk, when the clouds cleared for a moment, I could see the high point of the island in the distance, with the last of the evening sun on houses, sheep pastures and wooden fences rolling up to meet it.