As I was ironing some white shirts this morning, I looked at the electrical outlet and plugs and thought I would post a few pictures.

On the right is our trusty meter. If it goes to 0 everything electrical stops. So we buy electricity at about 10 cents a kilowat and we use about 400 KW per month. At current exchange rates that is about $50 a month which is pretty good for home but high for the average African home. The center picture is a wall plug. Note the three round holes where we would have one round and two slits – but it basically works the same. The big difference is the switches above the plugs. Every wall plug has one and it turns the plug on or off. At first it is hard to remember that you can turn an appliance on or off with the switch but later you find that it is often easier. The last picture is a bayonet light bulb. They have both bayonet and screw in light sockets here so often you have to have both kinds in the cabinet to make sure you have the right kind when a bulb burns out. End of short lesson…