what we're doing is we're going to a couple of different american spaces sponsored by the u s embassy and so there are a couple of different american spaces scattered across different cities and here and we're going to be doing  here grew up here and i feel like for the kids that haven't been there or just haven't been there as in their adult life so i feel there's a lot to learn from each other because the experiences that experiences culturally and so that's one of the most important things is that it is a collaborative effort in a club or a program so it's not that were the we want to bring knowledge and information we have a lot to learn as well  or video cameras or anything so we'll be able to even come back here will be able to communicate with one another whether it's skype or whether it's different different types of apps so we'll be able to communicate from so it could spread not just for the students that we meet there sort of being me one of our main sponsors on for this trip but we're also looking for some support financially to support us in our travels as well as donations for technology program cultural exchange and technology transfer program on go fund me and you'll be able to find us on the page there is a lot of information just sort of outlining the program structure and sort of what we'll be doing there and also have a promotional video where you can meet some of the students that will be traveling on the trip and we would love for you to help support us in doing that and some some information if you'd like to also be involved just sort of a quick note on in terms of donations on go fund me if you would like to proceed without donating a tip as well you can hit the other button on tips and specify zero for tips and send in your donation that way you know we appreciate your time for watching the video and any help that we can get thank you thank you be here again i've worked with for size for a number of years and this is a great place and great work is being done that at the studios with respect to teaching use hills ready and media skills and science and technology computer skills editing skills and addition that's what the pan african technical source and that's what we do are so we teach the youth about science and technology we offer and adduction the science and technology class in los angeles and in ethiopia and we want to bring that here too and that's what one thing we're going to work with and what we do in x lasses is that we introduce children to solar technology so there's a little sma car that they learn to put together and learn how to and this photons help to bring energy and make the car move we also learn a little bit about computers computer programming what circuit boards and they learn simple programming and how they vary also in los angeles ready to science and technology centers there and maybe the museum here so we want to bring these programs to seattle and want to continue them in los angeles and continue them in the view and that's where your support comes in you can help i website also you can and you know your fire and you can give your time you can help us do editing you can help us do english type editing too because the children want to learn that so some of the project that we're going to work on with ready your he p is helping to bridge the gap between the students in the hope you and the students here in seattle and los angeles the students and the ethiopians they need to get the english better need to understand english ready and be able to be a little bit more proficient in english the students here and thiago in los angeles they may lack a little ethiopian culture in their traditional culture so we want to stablish exchange programs and summer programs where the students from seattle and l a go to ethiopians been a number of weeks there and helping the students with their english and well the students from the state so the ethiopian students can help them with traditional european culture and being exposed to that so we're real excited about the opportunities we have and you are here in the seattle area the l a area and various other areas of the world can help us to bring these to if you wish and continue our programs because we've been established for a number of years and we're working well but we want to expand of many things about ethiopian history that we're going to talk about of the summer so what we're trying to do is raise enough money to get students here to be able to go to ethiopia and so we're asking for an addition again m r t r's a pharmacy three nonprofits so anything that you march has been in seattle helping to use learn about how to use and share social and digital media in a world where most information is shared through digital media and using digital media so help us to make this commission successful and build a better use with social media skills i'm peter going bom i'm on the board of  i this summer we have a very exciting programme that's going to be happening we're going to be taking a group of youths from ethiopian families so it's a very exciting program and we hope that you will support us benet and today i'm going to interview come out and we're going to ask you few questions so we're going to start with can you tell us about yourself and your relationship with the   this is my rd time and when i met him it was at the conference and he offered me a book he had heard i had helped out hope i hope to give a few little information about colonel john robinson and in a presentation i was actually given by julius garvey that was marcus garvey sun he was there at the conference in giving a presentation about his father  and he had overheard me on one we had traveled a little bit so we were flying from lalibela to x home and he heard me explaining the story of john robinson to somebody and when he heard that he gave me an offer oh you want to come up when i give my presentation and say a little bit about robinson so i did and then after day yeah he gave me a biography of john robinson so i was the st time that i met when to be out i was before i was a master's student and so since then i've been studying ethiopian african american relations and i've been working with davis on different events different or initiatives to his organization pan african technical association  so could you tell us your relationship between davis please yes i said i met him four years ago and we became friends also colleagues currently i am working with  organization the pan african technical association and i am the university affairs liaison essentially that is to build partnerships with different universities and the st project that we're working on is trying to connect our university in washington you know putting myself out there to china connected to entities and you know so far we've been able to connect them at least via email and virtually and so we just want to get something official and something their partner could also be a part of so i'm also work with brother yeah i felt him organize a fundraiser in d c for potter and also we had some of us who went on the bible conference in ethiopia we formed a group called african americans for sustainable african development and we've been able to raise funds to support different initiatives in ethiopia defers one was to provide a grinding mill for  nonprofit called medart going to help the women in your area annette town it's a money generating system for them because they have the grant they can grind the grains and other people can come to them and pay so that was one thing we did and then we also supported jamaican roster foreign development school in charge of money we gave them a financial contribution and so more efforts like that are what we're trying to do so what would you say are the major accomplishments of he was one of the people who was lifting robinson's name when nobody knew him he kind of dug him from the grave if you were i don't know best of best if that's the best analogy but i mean people were started forgetting about his so he was one of the ones who actually really brought his name back and helped to set this whole thing up also the naming of the seven hundred and eighty seven boeing plane after john c robinson i was another major accomplishment but besides that i always say the number one accomplishment would be the stem classes data that potter has offered to various organizations and schools  such as the salaam to family project and also st joseph school and other entities i know they've been able to do some workshops here at the robinson center and raising school gathering school supplies for students and just building their relationship between those of us in the diaspora and those of us on the  continent so could you tell us a little about kind of the obvious and he's his contribution for ethiopians here i would be very happy to tell you the story of colonel robinson i won't tell you the whole story  it's a long story but i can give you the abridged version so colonel john c robinson from the beginning he's either recently from gulfport i'm sorry he's originally from mississippi i forget the exact city but i know he's really from mississippi but he was a graduate of a university and he studied auto mechanics and engineering and so he used he used his knowledge of auto mechanics engineering and he transferred it to become a pilot to being a becoming a pilot he originally the school that he was the flight school that he wanted to get into which was in chicago it was named after the wright brothers then at this time in the one thousand nine hundred and twenty dollars s it was segregation a lot of discrimination against african americans so he was not allowed to come into the school so the way he learned how to become a pilot was he became a janitor and he used to sweep up in the back of the classroom extra extra slow i mean did a teacher started noticing that is where he was doing and say oh wow this he's studying and he allowed him to stay and study but not to enter into the school and so the way he got into the school was he he organized a group of african americans who were interested or interested in flying like him and they actually built the plane and they are they invited the instructor to come out and look at the plane they didn't think he was going to actually test it but the instructor he actually tested the plane and flew the plane and it worked and so after that they said ok we're we're allow you to come into the school that's how he got accepted into searching for support and they heard today we're getting a lot of support from the african american community and they wanted to make this support more than just protests more didn't just rallies more than just raising funds they wanted to see if they can get some technical support and so they were looking for pilots because they knew that they had no pilots there i mean they had they only had a few planes an italian had a four air corps so there was something where they were lacking and so they came across a gentleman named john robinson and he reached out to him and he actually came to ethiopia and flew during the time invasion he was here in one thousand and thirty five i think they only had a handful of planes but he flew them and he delivered messages like he was a courier so he would deliver messages from one part to another part he was also a scout so he may go scout to see were dia talents are camping out and come back and he had he has several close calls where he had to run for he didn't have he didn't have bullets attached to his plane he had to run from his life from the italians and so he had to do tricks and go up into the sky and go into the clouds and maneuver through the mountains and he was a big help although he was unable to secure a utopian victory he was you know critical in bringing medical supplies critical and delivering messages and also was the e personal pilot and that's where he became a colonel that's where he got the rank of colonel and he was the commander of ethiopia's air corps even though there were no much of the air corps but i mean what the what there was of it he was the  was the colonel and so after the invasion you know utopian patriots never gave up the fight and so they always kept fighting and afterwards after they did get their and they came and helped to train some of the st ethiopian pilots who ended up going into the air force and then they ended up going into the open air lines so i thought i was going to tell the short version but american media center under his name can you tell us more about this yes i can tell you a little bit more about this i think it was under veiled earlier this year in february this is when all of this came to fruition but this is been many years in progress i know by the hour davis has been coming back and forth ethiopia for over twenty years and especially within the last ten years i know he was working to to make this happen as far no engineer yeah davis he used to work for boeing their company out in seattle for several years so he has a relationship with  and he's a pilot himself so he can fly a small plane so he's a really amazing guy airspace engineer a really amazing guy happy to know him i honestly improve my life tremendously and  originally one part of the project before they could name these things after robinson they were searching for his grave because he actually passed away in ethiopia he died in a plane crash in the mid forty's or yeah i think it was the mid fort s and he no one knew where his grave was so there for a long time they were searching and they finally found his grave like a year or two ago and so i know yeah i was so part of that part of the finding of his so what kind of relationship do you expect and do you have any ideas or you know pointers to get out you know i expect a good relationship i know i expect maybe a little bit of having to learn and learn about each other in the beginning and maybe being a little bit slow but as i think down once the students meet each other you know share common interests that you know they'll realize that they're they're all in this together and they have a lot more some similarities than they have differences you know i see the sky's the limit definitely a language exchange you know some of the students coming from united states could be learning a mark and so being a big part of it you know coding robotics and especially media you know being able to document our stories because that's one of the most important things are and why i appreciate m m r t i is that you know there's so many things that are going on but people don't know about it you know you have to be able to document it and share it with people so that they know about it otherwise for them it's not something that exists you know there's many people who don't know they're a colonel john robinson exists and many people don't know that there is any relationship between need therapy and an african american history whereas there's a very long relationship it may not be the biggest loudest relationship in your face but if we need  document it more and then we can spread it around so i see a lot of documentation coming and as far  i would suggest people have open mind as far as the programming just you know outings field trips nine hundred just staying in a one room i think the best thing would be for them to you know travel the country together or travel to a city and  eat together don't just stay in the classroom that's what i would suggest so i heard you speak you know i'm hard earlier you're really good at it you know st someone hangouts is one of the examples for blasts what other activities do you suggest to develop this relationship so definitely whatsapp that's been my saving grace out here because when you have  can text them is long as you have good enough service which some places you don't you can do video conferencing and i would suggest you know what the other social media venues i mean the borders won't be a difference it will make a difference where they are also you tube i think you tube is a very powerful tool and sewer a lot of free information is and where a lot of people go maybe as their st as their st preference before they actually start to read or you know get other sources you tube may be the one they go to st and and you can also go experiences and he also taught science in technology classes like i know one was a solar powered car solar you know not i know if not a big car but a toy car to create family they seek to bring together young people who have lost their parents and by whatever means they're not able to be with their biological parents and they bring them together with women who have you know lost her husband for various means and they make them into a family so that's one of their models and they have another model of our which would outreach to people who are in april their main goal is to create a family atmosphere for people who have you know lost their family and they do a number of different things but that's their main go fees every summer it is an english language summer camp i mean they partner with organizations like pots and other organizations and they pretty much take care of them you know they provide for they provide for their needs and they give them an environment where they have other people who are like them and it's an alternative to the orphanage if you will you know so that's what they do they provide alternative to that so what kind of volunteer work have you been involved with for you know that you can actually help you know advice to come from so there is another a number of ways to get involved with the answer the way that i got involved which was this summer we're through the english language summer camp and essentially is a six week long camp they have three sessions they're broken down a two week sessions i did the st session and i'll be going back intermittently for the last session  sensually you have youth they have younger students that come in the morning teenagers come in the afternoon and you help them with their english language skills and it's a very nice can it's not just simply based on grammar  it's about life skills so through their teaching english through the book they came out of the seven habits of successful people and then they made a your one for younger people or just seven habits for successful teens and so they're using their model of some of those some of those habits be proactive think before you act i have goals in mind and so on and so forth and so we create discussion  t discussion based and it is a really good can't you know it normally go it's started there beginning of july and goes to like  august so six weeks was the main purpose of your trip so the main purpose of coming up here was for me to conduct research for my master's thesis which is  get sources for my pieces also coming here to this place the national archives to get more sources and also to visit different sites like there's a school  was started by jamaican rasa fairings and then there was also a school and iris used to go by the name of princes a number work school and it was started by a minion forward who moved here in the thirty's african american woman where her family  so i wanted to visit some sites like this and then also there was one to go and the other goal was to study i'm hark i did not intentionally i did not think that i would be able to register into official an official heart class the university but i was able to and so i'm taking the intermediate level of speaking and listening and my goal is to duplicate my experience for other howard students i want to make this something more formal where howard students can come from washington d c and many of them they're from all over the world and maybe and may even be ethiopian americans themselves and they can come here and study the language and so that's what i'm working on now working with the language literature folklore department at odds how about university and coordinating between them and african studies department and the center for african studies and the department of world languages over at howard university and so it's going to happen we it's going to happen you know people have already expressed interest i've introduced him via email and it's just about getting things on very fast city it reminds me like new york or something like that it's just so many people you know there's a saying about ethiopia de ethiopia is a museum of peoples and like that's so true because just like i  sometimes i just find myself just not trying to stare people too much by just looking at how no diverse there people look i mean you have every type of skin complection every type of hair texture every type of so many different languages that are being spoken so many different religions you know you have mosques and orthodox churches and protestant churches and  have a jewish community and people in the south are still practicing the traditional beliefs so it's beautiful experience to be in a city like this i like coming here because you know a lot of people when they st see me they just assume minority so sometimes you can be in settings where you feel you know just you know small in number but you know being here just nice it's a nice breath of fresh air for somebody coming from the states but as far as like there's so much to do amazed you're relaxing so but i got a chance i would say anyone who comes to artists this is amazing city so much to do live live very life but it's a lot of traffic so you know and sometimes the air quality isn't the best so if you really want to see where you have to go to the countryside and breathe fresh air going to the mountains you know i had the opportunity to go to to see the history  when you know the ethiopian history is when you can appreciate the present even more you know you know about x them in gondor being the former capitals of ethiopia in lalibela and some of these amazing sites these ancient churches and ancient monasteries and castles and all these different things that they have it's amazing i mean in even if you go to shatter mining you know they have maybe even a one thousand or more people who came from the caribbean in america and they moved to appear and they live there now so that's something that you wouldn't necessarily it's special ethiopia is a very special place so anyone interested in coming to ethiopia spices and things that they can't get in the states and also their meat is more organic here than it is in the states so that's better you know i like the fact that they have the fasting days you know it's because i didn't dabble with being a vegetarian or not but with the fasting days i don't really have to make a choice and i can just do both and stay disciplined to keep up with the fasting so as far as the food that i  to african americans and ethiopian americans back in the states in this message to go even beyond just you know african americans and ethiopians i mean we have  different people from africa are living in united states and i would encourage all of them to visit ethiopia especially our start with african americans because that's my experience you know it's a beautiful experience  to come to a country to has its own alphabet and has many languages you know one of the things that was taken from us when we were sold into slave meant and brought to america was our language and you know maybe we came from ethiopia maybe we didn't we don't know but the point is they have their own alphabet and their strong showing of self determination and something now we can learn from and so it's amazing to  be a part of that you know also another thing that was done to us in the americas during a slave process was christianity was used as a weapon against us and saying that black people were than many of the christian forms that we were introduced to so it's it's a way to learn a different side of christianity you know now i'm not trying it's not preaching for someone to be in a specific religion it's just because these were some of the things that will last and some of things they were used against us is very special to be able to come to ethiopia and to see angels they're brown you know or biblical figures who are brown although you know they have they have white images of the biblical figures as well i won't get into that but at least at least that's not the only image that you see it's not the one that's plastered in your face all the time so it's it's a liberating experience for african americans to come for ethiopian americans you know i have friends and it seems that many of them are sometimes caught between two worlds they may feel like they're not fully  they may not feel like they're really african american but they may not feel like they're either they just want to be individual but what i would say to them is you have a strong history and culture and you need to stand and if you don't know your history and culture then you'll be lost and you will be easily manipulated by the people you know it's something it's something that you have to have and it's a beautiful experience don't don't give it up so easily when you have your language and your culture don't just give it up so easily and for that for other people of african descent from the caribbean or west africa or south africa or wherever you come to ethiopia african union is here you know there's a lot of some people say is the capital of africa i mean i won't argue or say it is or it isn't but there are a lot of international work there's a lot of international work going here and let's remember the only country in africa that was never colonized and as does the pride of all people of african descent so if you get a chance definitely come visit here in the following weeks time from now document this history of the relationship between ethiopians and african americans and we have many places to go we have meetings solidifying things with different partners and what i see is just we leave here we'll have a firm partner know where to go who to talk to and it will be the foundation will be set for bringing students the next step would just be making sure that we can bring students here but as far as here it will be set up so they can come that's what i see so we want to think kamau grimes for this interview and  what we're doing is we're going to a couple of different american spaces sponsored by the u s embassy and so there are a couple of different american spaces scattered across different cities and here and we're going to be doing  here grew up here and i feel like for the kids that haven't been there or just haven't been there as in their adult life so i feel there's a lot to learn from each other because the experiences that you could experiences culturally and so that's one of the most important things is that it is a collaborative effort in a club or a program so it's not that we were the only ones being knowledge and information we have a lot to learn as well  or video cameras or anything so we'll be able to even come back here will be able to communicate with one another whether it's skype or whether it's different different types of apps so we'll be able to communicate from so it could spread not just for the students that we meet there sort of being me one of our main sponsors for this trip but we're also looking for some support financially to support us in our travels as well as donations for technology that can meet some of the students that will be traveling on the trip and we would love for you to help support us in doing that and some more information if you would like to also be involved just sort of a quick note on signs could you tell us a little bit what you do here at the american center what kind of activities you do just carrying a sharing  we we share our knowledge i'm not saying we have a lot of knowledge but we share what we know even if it's a small big but  of the reason we are here is that we care a lot because we know we have been through every many situations we have struggled many many situations to know this much of the knowledge we have right now but we don't need any anybody to go through that pass we just provide some pass for a easy way for others and that's aimed not even youngsters at all the people who can find interested in the science and technology streams so could you tell us how you got it did this how you got interested how you got inspired in doing