shocking when wet

Here is a photo of a new "appliance" I've become very familiar with since moving to Costa Rica. Can you tell what it is?

50 points for you if you guessed that it's a shower head with an electric water heater attached to it.

50 bonus points if you read that sentence and thought, "Hmmm...water and electricity...I thought those things weren't supposed to mix."

You may be wondering what this potentially lethal combo is doing in my bathroom. Warm running water is very rare in Costa Rica (I've actually never encountered it, but I suspect it may exist in some places, or there wouldn't be so many people moving here), so these babies are attached to the shower heads to make showers more pleasant.

It's a little tricky to work at first--you have to turn the water knob just so to get it to kick on, and I took many a cold shower before figuring out how to do so--but once it's on, it does a great job of heating the water, and it even helps save a lot of money on utility bills.

But a word to the wise: DO NOT touch it while the water is running!

I mean, not that I've ever done that myself, of course, I've just heard that it can be kinda electrifying...