%20for%20Dark%20Background-02.png)
.png)
Welcome to the family
News
Colleagues
FROM
For adrenaline junkies like Riaan!
Skydiving...
On 5 October 2002, I made my first jump and 19 years later I've done over 3000 jumps.
People often ask me why do I jump or what does it feel like? I cannot possibly tell you what it feels like to skydive, it is something you must experience for yourself. However, why I jump is easier to explain...
Freefall has become my sanctuary. It's the one place where only the moment matters. The rush and adrenaline disappeared for me after about 50 jumps, now it’s just calm and relaxing.
There is a common saying in skydiving, "come for the rush, stay for the community". During the past 19 years, I have traveled all over the world to skydive and I can honestly say there is no community like the skydiving community. You basically gain a global family when you start skydiving. The skydiving community is also very diverse - anything from mechanics to plastic surgeons and everything in between.
I’ve also been very fortunate to have taken part in multiple world record attempts for the largest wingsuit formation. I’ve competed in multiple South African national championships.
I am currently jumping at Skydive Pretoria and assist my club as Tandem camera man and I’ve also recently completed my instructors rating.
Jeanne-Lee went on a
bicycle tour
The Handevat Fietstoer from NG Kerk Universiteitsoord could finally resumed this year at full speed after all the turmoil and unsure events of 2020. Twelve brave young and kind hearted people, cycled the 275km of gravel road from Magaliesburg to Buhrmansdrift with a fire in their hearts.
The purpose of this bike tour is to serve in one way or another, in every town that we visit, based on the need. However, as an individual on this outreach, you are also challenged and blessed all at the same time.
From baking cupcakes at 3:00 in the morning to deliver to the elderly in the town, to washing cars in the late afternoon. From quiz competitions in the nursing homes, to cleaning churches that haven't been used due to Covid... every outreach was something to remember.
With a fall or two, the cyclists definitely made sure that the group leaders had to be on their toes, but luckily the group were made of steel!
The new Covid-friendly version of this outreach definitely created new opportunities and we are excited to see what will happen in 2022.
Am I focusing on
the right thing?
This question has been asked several times in many sessions to all of us... am I focusing on the right things?
A simple way of challenging yourself to get to the bottom of this question, is to ask yourself the 3 famous questions Pieter emphasized during our last tea-session:
.png)
Main focus for all - supporting the growth of MineRP
Getting the right answers to these questions will help take MineRP to the next level... but remember, if you are struggling with finding answers to these questions or are unsure about what you should do, if your tasks are adding value to MineRP - please schedule a session with your manager, as we value open, honest and transparent conversations
MineRP Cares
The reason why Care is our first value is because you can’t live any of the other values if you don’t care…
Care about your work, your family, the environment, MineRP, yourself …
Abraham Kriel Bambanani
AK is a registered NPO providing care and skills development for traumatized children and youth in need, in the greater Johannesburg area. They also provide shelter, physical care, rehabilitation and skills development.
We support Abraham Kriel Bambanani on a monthly basis through the generous contributions of our employees and MineRP SA, as every R1 donated by the employee, MineRP also donates R1 to the MineRP Cares fund. This money is used to provide support for the monthly needs of AK.
A message from Abraham Kriel: "You and your household are like family to Abraham Kiel Bambanani kids and staff.
You are standing in for caring parents and gogo’s that our kids have lost and dearly miss in their lives….
Hold on, hold hands, one hand cares for another.
Let’s hold on to each other, keep the hope up!"
Grannies Who Care
GWC was founded in 2012 by a handful of grannies who aspired to reach out to those in need in their community. Their vision is to assist and meet the immediate needs of mothers with new born babies in the provincial hospitals.
We support them on a monthly basis by donating the money you pay when you book a car wash @ MineRP. Since Lazarus became a permanent family member, the “payment” for the car wash will be deducted from your salary the following month and all proceeds are going towards supporting GWC.
For more information, please click on the image.
MineRP Celebrates
We have a
Doctor in the house
"Ideas are cheap! Implementation, verification and results determine the quality of an idea; this is one of the most valuable lessons I've learned during my doctoral journey.
Another invaluable lesson that I've learned is your knowledge and skills can grow extremely fast with the help of a good mentor. I had a great mentor, Prof SE Terblanche, from which I've learned a lot, especially when it comes to C++ and mathematical modelling.
A thing that saved a lot of frustration is good abstraction and generalization of problems. As the famous computer scientist Edsger Djikstra once said, the art of programming is the art of organizing complexity."
As his MineRP family, we are extremely proud of Ruan and would like to congratulate him with his Doctoral degree: PhD in Industrial Engineering at the North-West University.
This takes hard work, commitment and determination...All characteristics that MineRP encourage and cultivate.
We celebrate with you Ruan Luies!
The latest research paper within which Sinisa was part of, reports that the amount of hydrogen peroxide, H2O2, which is contained in water droplets suspended in the air, increased with rise in relative humidity.
What is the story behind? When we breathe, we exhale viruses and eventually someone else inhales them. This happens with every breath we take, all day, to all of us. Yet, we do not get sick, because our body has two ways of neutralizing inhaled viruses. The first way is to adsorb viruses on mucus in our throat, and we simply swallow them. Majority of viruses (bacteria, fungi, dust, pollution, …) are handled this way. This is good because it costs us no energy. However, some viruses are inhaled all the way into lungs and from there via blood into every cell of our body. If this happens, the body fights by inflammation. This second mechanism is massively energy consuming. It uses oxygen that is meant for other functions, so we feel weak. Pop quiz: are you under inflammation all day, every day, because you are inhaling viruses? No. So the body has this virus-fighting-thing under control.
Now, what happens when normal is not normal anymore? Relative humidity in the air is about 50% so what happens when it drops to 25% like it is in our buildings, homes, airplanes, malls and offices. In that case, our mucus is compromised, therefore one’s throat can’t perform the first mechanism. Ouch, but that is how we handle viruses, bacteria, pollution! There is more. Air does not create viruses, we are the source of viruses, not air! But air can help. Listen to this, it turns out small water droplets in the air generate H2O2. Aha! Why aha? H2O2 kills viruses! (now) Aha. So, if there is H2O2 in the air waiting for our exhaled viruses then it will kill them and prevent other people from being infected. Yes.
But that will not happen if humidity is low. Low humidity means that there are no water droplets in the air to make that H2O2. This paper demonstrates that this third mechanism in the air is not going to help us in our offices, indoor games or anywhere indoors, where we use air conditioners to regulate air quality. Other papers demonstrate that the first mechanism via mucus is compromised as well at low humidity that makes our throat dry. What we are left with is the immune response, which is not meant to fight every virus we inhale?!
So, if a virus can be transmitted via exhaled breath, and air humidity is low, then many will have inflammation. And if 1% of those have severe inflammation, then our healthcare system, which is not optimized to keep extra beds, will be (is) overwhelmed – even though we could prevent this by raising relative humidity indoor, as another paper suggests.
Click here to read the complete article.
Effect of relative humidity on hydrogen peroxide production in water droplets
Sinisa, featured in the
Cambridge University Press
Attitude is a little thing, that makes a big difference
-Winston Churchill-