Special challenge: find the oldest person in a village

Another special challenge awaited us: set off from the camp in Ürgüp and count the villages we passed through. We, with odd-numbered Team #85, had to stop at the 11th village and find the oldest person. Our 11th village was a small farming village called Büyükkayapa with only 150 inhabitants. A great challenge awaited us, as nobody speaks English or German. Google Translate proved its worth here once again. In a relatively short time we had found the oldest person. It turned out to be Osman Dogan, aged 78. By then more and more villagers had joined us and we were able to complete our special task with a group photo. Before long we were invited by the son of the oldest resident and his family for chai (Turkish black tea). Since, as mentioned, nobody speaks English or German, the family quickly called in the son’s brother, who lives in the Netherlands, via Skype. In perfect Dutch, our rally-Roli had a conversation with the son, who immediately translated everything into Turkish for the family. A wonderful encounter with complete strangers gave us new “likes” on Facebook as well as a beautiful memory.