Full Name: Daniel Bruce Patterson. Birthdate: November 1953. Birthplace: La Jolla California, USA. My homes:    »Brooklyn, WA, USA.      (It's actually farm country)    »Manaus, Brazil.

My Wife: Sônia Vieira Patterson, born June 1974 in Borba, Amazonas, Brazil.

My Father: Harold LeRoy Patterson (nickname "Pat"), born Aug. 1920 in Portland Oregon. Lives on a farm in Brooklyn, Washington.

My Mother: Shirley Jean Patterson (nee Van Hamm), born July 1921 in Fort Collins Colorado. Died April 2001 in Aberdeen Washington. I also have a younger brother, Mark, a sister in law, (Mark's wife), Cherrie and two nephews, Jason and Kelly. My wife has many brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews in Brazil.

What I do for a living:

I live simultaneously in two worlds. I have a full time job in the USA and I have a home and a business in Manaus, Brazil in the heart of the Amazon.

In the USA am a traveling Electronics Technician. I perform installation, cabling, alignment, testing and integration of electronics equipment in support of Air Traffic Control. This includes (but is not limited to) ground to air radios, voice and data communications equipment, radar, navigational aids and information display systems. I've been doing this job since 1989 for three different companies, first for Holmes and Narver under subcontract to Raythen, then as a Raytheon employee, and currently for Lockheed Martin. My current Customer is the Federal Aviation Administration. I also worked 1½ years on the SIVAM project for the Brazilian Air Force.

By its nature, my job is a traveling job and I've been traveling full time since January of 1991. During that time, I have traveled to 49 states (all except Alaska), several Islands of the Pacific and the Caribbean, and lived one year in Brazil. When I’m traveling in the United States, I travel with a truck and trailer which is my portable home. When overseas, I put the truck and trailer in storage.

In Brazil, I am President and Founder of Amazônia Banda Larga e Informática Ltda. (ABL). Since January of 2005, ABL has been providiing satellite-based Broadband Internet access and Internet Networking solutions to enterprise, government, education and small business customers across the entire Amazon region 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. My wife, Sônia, joined the company as my partner in February of 2009.

ABL also provides installation, integration and implementation services for telecommunications and air traffic management systems such as ground to air radios, radars, and weather observation equipment for government agencies and companies in Brazil.

Our Office and Home in Manaus, Brazil:

My Hobbies and Interests:

I have always been very active in Church. I'm a member of the Assemblies of God Denomination (founded in simultaneously in Springfield, MO, and Saõ Paulo, Brasil in 1903). I have sung in Church Choirs, played in the Orchestra (I play Tuba and other brass instruments as well as Electric Bass), taught Sunday School and occasionally preached. When in Manaus, I regularly attend Tenda de Familia in Centro.

I like Photography (I have lots of cameras), Music (Symphony, Musicals, Piano Bars, etc.), Dancing (I can't really dance, but I pretend and I really want to learn), The Great Outdoors, Computers and, of course, world travel. I'm also an avid reader. It's rare to find me without a book to read.

The miracle of my birth:

My parents met during World War II. My mother was a civilian instructor for the Army Air Corps (predecessor to the US Air Force) teaching gunnery at Lowry Field in Denver Colorado. My Dad was training to be the waist gunner on the B17 and was one of her students. My Dad’s job before the war was US Immigration Border Patrol Agent, and after the war he returned to his old job working the Southern Border in Texas and Southern California. After some years, my Mom and Dad were ready for a change. and since they were Christians, thought that going to Bible school would give them some new direction. So, after almost ten years of marriage and no children, my Dad quit his job and my parents went together to Bible School at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA). My dad majored in Bible in preparation for the Ministry, and my mom majored in Education.

Having been told by their doctor that they couldn’t have children, they claimed the promise in Psalm 128 by faith and asked God for a child. The result is that I was born in 1953, and they graduated in 1955.

My childhood:

My parents were called by God to serve as "home missionaries" to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. In 1955 we moved to a town called Taholah on the Quinault Indian Reservation in Washington State. They both worked as teachers in the school there, and had to get second bachelors degrees in Washington because California teaching credentials were not recognized in Washington. They both went on to get Masters of Education degrees in their 50s.

During our time in Taholah, my Mom was a pioneer in early childhood education, starting one of the first preschools in the nation. My Dad, as well as becoming the Superintendent of Schools, ministered in the local church, and served in many community activities including the Housing Authority, Tribal Planning Commission, and as an advisor to the Tribal Chairman. He attained national recognition as an expert in Indian Education. When we left Taholah in 1972, he went on to serve 10 years as the Associate Supervisor of Indian Education for the Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI).

My early adulthood:

After High School graduation in 1972, we moved off the Reservation to a family farm where my dad commuted to work at the Office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) and became a gentleman farmer. I joined the Air Force and after a year of training to be an Electronics Technician was posted to Germany. During my three years in Germany, I developed my skills as a Technician and took the opportunity to travel throughout most of Western Europe, plus one trip to Israel.

At the end of 1976, I left the Air Force to continue my education, attending first a community college near our farm while living with my parents. At the community college, I took the first two years of an Electronics Engineering program and received an Associate of Science degree.

In 1978 I moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington. After the first quarter, I decided that I was more interested in Languages, and switched to that field of study. Not being satisfied with one, I spread myself over three departments: English, German and Classics (Ancient Greek and Latin). I spent four years studying these languages and during this time participated in a very large church in Seattle. During my college years, I took two trips, one to Africa as part of a Church Choir on tour, and one as a student back to Germany, where we traveled behind the Iron Curtain into Communist East Germany.

My involvement in politics:

While attending the University of Washington, I became active in Republican politics by participating in the Reagan Campaign for President in 1980. I started out by attending neighborhood caucuses and getting elected as a delegate to the conventions. I served as a county and State Delegate every two years until 1988 when I was elected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in New Orleans. During my years prior to becoming a full time traveler, I also managed the campaigns of two Republican Candidates and a tax cut initiative and worked briefly for the Republican Party and The Washington State Legislature.

In 1992 I became active on CompuServe, eventually becoming a SysOp on the Photography forum. In December of 1998 I was given the opportunity to take over management of the Republican Forum. While managing the forum as a CompuServe Business Partner, I developed an external web portal for the forum at http://www.republicanforum.com. The forum has since moved off of CompuServe and is now hosted by the Nommisoft Network. I currently manage the Forum while traveling using a laptop. For more information about the history of the forum, click here.

After leaving college, I drifted from one job to another, mostly in politics, and then spent some time working in the roofing industry before discovering my present job as a Government Contractor. I speak German and Portuguese.

My Family:

When I first went to Brazil in September of 2000, I knew right away that that's where I wanted to settle down and raise a family. A year later, when I finished my project there and went back to my job in the USA, I purposed not to lose touch and made a minimum of one trip per year to Brazil from that point on.

On my many trips there I was pursuing three objectives: first, to find a wife, second to start a business, and third, to buy a house. I achieved all three of those goals in 2005.

In July of 2004, I met Sônia Almeida Vieira and six months later we became engaged. In parallel with that I was laying the foundation for starting my business and looking into buying a house. We launched the business in January of 2005. In June, I closed the deal on my house and Sônia moved in (I was still in the USA). In July I showed up and we were married. For the story of the wedding (with pictures), click here.

Immediately after the wedding we applied for an immigration visa for Sônia. Four months later we were summoned to Rio de Janerio for an interview. She received her visa the next busines day after the interview and after spending a belated one week honeymoon in Rio,we travveled back to the USA together. Since that time Sônia has been traveling with me full time. Whenever we are in one place long enough she enrolls in an English class at a local community college.