Yesterday evening we arrived at Rabat at the residence of the Head of Economic Affairs of the Dutch ambassador, his name is Luc Schilling. We were invited for dinner with him, his wife, and two interns and slept in our rooftop tent on their driveway. We had a talk about working for the Dutch embassy in Morocco, what it is like to work in a different culture, and working for an embassy for different generations. In addition, we talked about our expedition.
This morning we were invited to the residence of the Dutch ambassador of Morocco Jeroen Roodenburg. He invited us for breakfast. After giving Jeroen a tour around our expedition car, our talk continued during breakfast. We shared our mission and vision and talked about the urgency of sustainability in Morocco. Morocco is facing a drought due to the absence of rain resulting in a possible limitation of the use of water. In Agadir, an installation is being built to make drinking water with seawater as a source. Extreme measures are needed because of climate change.
The Dutch Embassy is helping Morocco in this transition by sharing knowledge and experiences of the Netherlands. As the charging network in the Netherlands is well developed, this knowledge is used to set up a charging network in Morocco as well. There are only a few electric cars here at the moment. Also, the first charging stations are installed, but they are working on better availability and an app to find them so it would be easier for people driving electric.
Although sustainability is not the only topic the embassy is working on, we notice that it is high on the agenda. Also on a personal level sustainability and climate change is important to Jeroen. He will exchange his car for an electric model next year, and he will add solar panels to his residence.