Balik Kampung

The Harritz Family Name at Kongenshus Memorial Park - Sept 2014

Balik Kampung is a phrase that has hung with me since departing Malaysia nearly a year ago. In English the phrase means ‘return to village’ and is used to describe the mass exodus of people from the cities to their hometowns that occurs during every large holiday season. More broadly, it describes time with family and returning to one’s roots.

On my way back from Tanzania this September I balik-ed kampung with my brother. Stopping off in Amsterdam, I hopped a flight to Copenhagen where I met Tom for a ten day adventure across Denmark. As with any ‘return to village’ scenario, however, adventure in this case translated to good food, good conversation, and plenty of time spent with our extended Danish family.

We covered a lot of territory, from the rolling hills and fields of Ringe and midtfyn to the medieval town of Ribe and grenen, the tip of the Danish mainland where the Baltic and North seas collide. We ate delicious meals, a New Nordic take on smørrebrød at Almanak in Copenhagen, a homemade multi-course feast with family on a farm near Viborg, and the delicious simplicity of  snøbrød baked over a campfire. Mostly, however, the trip was about conversations over cups of coffee, glasses of wine, and bottles of beer and the re-membering of family lineages and histories.

Time spent in Denmark with my brother was pure gift - for me and especially for him. When each of us four grandkids turned twelve my Grandma and Grandpa Harrits planned to take each of us to Denmark to meet relatives and learn about our heritage. For a variety of reasons, Tom opted not to take his trip then. Following my grandpa’s death this past Spring, however, he realized it was time. 

And so I went with him, across the country and back in time to Grønhøj and the windswept moors of Western Jutland where, in 1759, the Harritz family arrived to clear the fields of heather and plant the humble potato. Along the way we met a genealogist who studies family like ours, potato germans they are called, who produced records that trace the family name back to a small farm in central Germany. . . 

Another village to return to on another trip perhaps.