AANY: Who are you and where are you from?
Carrie: Carrie Patterson from Dallas, Texas, originally from Oklahoma. I’ve been in Dallas for around 8 years.
AANY: What do you do?
Carrie: I work for a foster care and an adoption agency in Plano, Texas. We place foster kids in foster homes through child protective services.
AANY: You look like someone famous.
Carrie: I guess I’ve been told on accession Taylor Swift.
AANY: Not a bad person to be compared to! Anyway, foster care?
Carrie: Yea, it’s pretty incredible. Probably the coolest part is the adoptions we get to do. We get to see kids transform from being sick and sad or injured and transformed to healthy, happy children. And on occasion get placed into homes where they are adopted.
AANY side note: I met Carrie and Bo Patterson on a tour I give, Photo Trek Tours. We bopped into Evolution, a cool store in Soho, which prompted a travel discussion.
AANY: I love this store, great gift store for cool Uncles and Aunts to impress their nieces and nephews. I love these piranhas.
Carrie: Recently we went to the Amazon River. These piranhas remind me of the men on the boat who were native to Brazil. They fished for piranhas. They literally had like 50 piranhas just sitting at the bottom of their boat. We were on the Amazon for around 10 days. We lived on a multi-level boat where we slept in hammocks, a whole row of people sleeping in hammocks. We went to some of the villages up the Amazon in some very remote spots where we would have to climb these mud stairs up to where people lived in their huts in their villages.
AANY: This was for missionary work?
Carrie: We basically went to the Amazon to tell them about Jesus and share the gospel. It was pretty cool.
AANY: Did you dine on piranhas?
Carrie: No, they fed us a lot of beef, beans and rice. I didn’t really eat a lot while I was there. They do have this drink called Guarana. It is sort of like a ginger ale. It’s very tasty. Let’s see, what else did we do? The villagers showed us how to make this white substance which is like a root and they eat it with everything. It’s sort of a powder that they sprinkle on pretty much everything that they eat. It doesn’t have a lot of flavor to it.
AANY: Any mind altering effects?
Carrie: No, I’m not really sure what it does.
AANY: Sounds like Guarana powder. Here’s what I read about guarana:
Guarana is one of the best known stimulants originating from the Brazilian rainforest. Guarana increases concentration and clears the mind. It quickens perceptions, slows the pulse and suppresses the appetite which is very useful during long drives or work periods.
Guarana is used traditionally as a natural energy source or stimulant. It can be used to replace coffee and consumed in the same way or added to coffee to strengthen it.
Guarana can also be used to combat hangovers, neuralgia and menstrual headaches though long term use may cause nervousness and insomnia.
Also known as Brazilian cocoa and Uabano this is a climbing shrub with divided compo
und leaves. It is widely taken as a health tonic in Brazil helping over-come fatigue.
AANY: Did you go swimming in the river?
Carrie: There’s no way I would get into that water. There’s piranha everywhere, and snakes. I saw snakes sticking their heads out of the water. Everything is huge. The catfish are huge. The insects are gigantic, the butterflies, moths and, roaches. Our boat would park out in the middle of the river because if you stayed near the shore the insects are really bad. If you didn’t wrap your hammock around you, you would have these huge insects on your hair and face.
AANY: And you did this all in the name of Jesus Christ!
Carrie: It was somewhat of a sacrifice. All we could take was a little backpack, no toiletries, no makeup – very au natural.
AANY: So how has your trip to NYC been?
Carrie: It’s been wonderful; I love it. We’ve seen some great shows. That’s probably my favorite part. You can’t get that in Dallas; and we’ve had great food too!
AANY: Any restaurant recommendations?
Carrie: The Blue Ribbon Restaurant was wonderful. I had the shrimp ravioli. It was very tasty. We had crème brulee. It’s a nice quaint place, not too loud, very good.
AANY: We’ve just arrived at Washington Square Park where there is a piano set up. Is there anything else you would like to share?
Carrie: I come from a family of pianists. My grandpa was very good. My mom is amazing. And my brother just recently – a couple of years ago – learned to play and he is very good too. I just play chords myself. I prefer to sing while I play.
AANY: Following in Taylor Swift’s footsteps! It was great meeting the Pattersons and Happy New Year!
