…or as close as you can get to Africa in Brussels. On Friday 14 June, the MUMM team of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) visited the renovated AfricaMuseum in Tervuren as part of their annual team building.
MUMM stands for ‘Management Unit of the Mathematical Model of the North Sea’ and brings together the RBINS scientists who advise the government in relation to human activities in the Belgian part of the North Sea (the MARIMA team), perform aerial surveillance (the SURV team, additionally the OO-MMM pilots were also invited) and also carry out the federal monitoring of marine mammals at sea, coordinate the stranding network, study eutrophication and report to Europe on the state of health of our part of the North Sea. The development and maintenance of scientific websites and applications of the Operational Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature, the largest scientific directorate within RBINS) is also carried out by MUMM specialists (the SWAP team). A large and diverse team, which was redivided several times in different ways during the team building day to bring employees with different tasks/mother tongues together!
For their visit to the AfricaMuseum, the mummies opted for the guided tour ‘A blend of Central Africa’, in which they were provided information on the material culture, immaterial heritage and biodiversity of Central Africa for two hours. Of course, Belgian colonial history could not be overlooked either, and how we can deal with it in the current context. Contemporary themes such as the multicultural society and sustainable development completed the story. Some also ventured into a few African dance steps.
After an interesting visit to the museum and a walk in perfect weather conditions, we made our appearance for lunch in the Tervurian restaurant ‘De Linde’, where we enjoyed the June edition of the market menu. The succession of very tasty appetizers, starters, main courses and desserts, accompanied by aperitifs and adapted wines (optional, of course), made us leave the restaurant satisfied.
Producing a group photo was just about the only thing we were able to do afterwards. Out of sheer necessity, we then went to a nearby terrace to recover from the feast.
When you work hard, you occasionally also have to relax hard!
Top, from left to right: Ronny Schallier, Yolande Maes, Karien De Cauwer, Alexander Vermeire, Jan Haelters, Brigitte Lauwaert, Mia Devolder, Abdel Eslama, Geert Present, Kelle Moreau / Below, from left to right: Samuël Orsi, Lucien Schwind, Nabil Youdjou, Annelore Van Nieuwenhove, Ruth Lagring, Dries Noppen, Ward Van Roy, Kobe Scheldeman, Michel Kapel, Pieter Janssens