Eureka!!!! We have solved the electronic conversion problems!

Rakieta told me last week that the portable dvd player I left behind for her was working finally. Her tutor took her American cord and somehow figured out it wasn't getting any juice. So he stuck in an African cord (egads) and Viola! it worked. So she is now able to use it.... sort of.
Today she reported that it isn't working again. However, since they aren't too electricity literate any number of things could be the problem.
However, I decided that the trusty little tutor (He is about 20 and works pretty hard at getting our whiny oldest African daughter to enjoy school work. ) might be on to something. So I dragged out all the AC adapter cords we own and set to work seeing if I could get the same result. Well, of course none of the little plugs were the right size. But I remembered the extra universal laptop cord that we had sitting around from the prior laptop. We had to buy it to replace the original cord and it has a gazillion different little things to fit in the connector hole. Anyway, What do you know? It worked!!!!!
So, for any of you going over I highly recommend you purchase one of these. TARGUS 90 watt AC/DC Notebook power adapter. Best Buy sells them and you can get them online.
Here is the deal:
1. It fits many different electronic items
2. It reads how much electricity the device needs
3. It reads what type of electricity is coming from the source
4. It transforms everything safely so there is no Kaboom!!!!

One last thing-make sure you have 3 to 2 prong conversion plugs if you are coming from the US. They can not be gotten there and you will need them to insure you will not be having bare plug exposed when trying to plug in. In Paris I couldn't even begin to try to plug in because the 3 prong plug would interfere with the outlet's extra prongs. My handy conversion plugs were not adequate. You need both the 3 to 2 American and the European/African to get things working properly.

You learn something new everyday and it is great to be able to work in unison to solve problems. That 7000 mile separation is getting a little smaller with every positive thing like this that happens.