That time I saw an armadillo in Africa

 I was reading CNN and stumbled across an article about the pangolin. Pangolins are apparently the most trafficked mammal in the world. And almost no one has heard about them.This is the link to the article about the trafficking of pangolins. In my own attempt to raise awareness about the very existence of this animal I'm going to tell the story of our pangolin experience on safari in Botswana. And because it's a cool story. I have a lot of cool stories from that time my parents had a mid-life crisis and moved their kids to Africa but I'm not very good at talking about them. I mean, how often do pangolins come up in conversation? About twice in 14 years...

That time I saw an armadillo in Africa:
I was 12 when we went on our big African safari. We'd had about 4 months in Luanda, Angola at that point and my dad's boss was very concerned that my brother and I would see Africa as nothing more than the war-torn, poverty stricken mess that surrounded us in Luanda. A sidenote, Africa is soooo much more than the war-torn poverty stricken messy pictures you see... it's beautiful in so many ways even in the middle of that mess. But that's another story.

My parents agreed that we needed to explore all the continent has to offer and we booked our first safari in Botswana. My mom spent a ton of time researching where to go and what safari camps would accept kids and where you could go to see what animals and which ones had what tactics to keep the lions out at night (no joke). We flew (I think) into Maun and then took a small private plane to the first game camp.

My Dad, Safari Guide, my brother, my mom and me
next to a fully outfitted safari Land Cruiser