My final week in Ireland!!!

This has been the busiest week of my stay which has now finally come to a close. I realised that I have a lot of things that I need to do before I leave and believe me you I have again forgotten to do many of them…

Monday:

We did some laboratory experiments - some usually take a whole day and I was able to appreciate what a sample of dead cells looked like on flow cytometry and how frozen samples sometimes behave, and will look out for that in the future. It looks like not much work but what usually takes time is labelling with the antibodies, incubating and especially for the antibodies which have no florochrome the process is long.

The new tram line has been opened and it leads to a very extraordinary version of the new city. I was able to visit the grand arena where gigs and comedies take place called the O2. It staggering in its beauty and I did plenty of sightseeing.

Tuesday:

We started off with a journal club and it was a good chance to see and be part of a journal club here. It is really different from the methods we use for this exercise. Here everyone gets at least 2 journals and chooses a recent paper form each and they discuss them - we were 8 people in attendance, so you can do the mathematics. You really get vast information in such a short period of time. In the afternoon we sat down to do all the flow cytometry analysis we have been doing and we worked on it till 5pm - it was a hard task.

Wednesday:

I gave a talk in the department concerning my Masters thesis and the work on Pediatric Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome. We all enjoyed the session, which generated a fruitful discussion and we hope to form future collaborations so as to try and elucidate the immunopathogenesis and probably endeavour to get tighter and tighter. At the end of the presentation one of the doctors said that they had actually admitted an African lady intensive care unit that day with TB-IRIS!!! And she was fighting for her life.

I was able to visit the children’s hospital at Temple Street. I was given the tour by a paediatrician called Ronan who actually worked in Uganda at Joint Clinical Research Centre. It was a fantastic tour and I was able to see him recruiting study patients for his study and doing the consent and phlebotomy. He also showed me the Rotunda Maternity Hospital which is the second oldest in the world. 

I also attended the Christmas fair in Dublin near Connolly station and it was very lovely.

Thursday:

I had lot errands to run but I was still able to prepare some PBMCs - finally. Enda told me a postman had foreseen snowing by the end of this week and I was wondering and doubting his ability to predict snow and low and behold I saw my first snow shower in the evening.

Friday:

Today it is Friday – my last day. It is a beautiful morning with snow all over the place. At least I have been able to see snow! I have really partied this week. Every evening since Monday I have had a wonderful evening out with friends and colleagues. I have had a fantastic time and it has been a time well spent. I know we have started many collaborations. Bravo CDPC…Mwebare munonge nembendeza Nohiri nungi nomwaka musya murungi!!!!!!!!!!