Nigerian power outlet ...

enchufe
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Molea.

I was a bit taken aback with these at first, lol. They worked pretty well with a grounded plug, but I quickly realized that many things came with non-grounded plugs. When you tried to plug in a non-grounded plug, the two horizontal sockets were blocked ... with a grounded plug, the ground pillar pushes a mechanism that slides back protective covers on the active power sockets below.

It's actually an ingenious design for safety, at least up to a point. It's hard for a kid, or anyone, to accidentally stick something into an active power socket, which is a fair sight more dangerous with 220V power. However, the practical result in a place with a mix of grounded plugs and not ... is that when you try to plug a non-grounded plug into a wall socket, you need to insert something into the ground socket to open it up. Absurdly, the 'safety' mechanism caused me stick foreign objects into ground sockets throughout my time in Lagos ... Just one of the MANY situations that gave rise to a familliar and favorite saying from my years there .......

Thank you for turning an everyday transaction into a bizzarre ritual.