Today I described an inanimate object as “refusing.” We were driving by some road construction on the way to Thaba-Tseka and there was a big truck trying to shove a relatively large boulder off the side of the road. The truck kept going back and forth and back and forth trying to get this rock to move where it should when these words came out of my mouth, “Ah, that rock is refusing.” This is a very common phrase. If the car won’t start you say “The car is refusing” or a printer isn’t working you’d say, “the printer is refusing.” I found it really funny when I first came to Botswana – to describe an inanimate object as “refusing” – but obviously I’ve picked it up now.
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