The Moose Jaw Multicultural Council (MJMC) and the Rotary Clubs of Moose Jaw have partnered to present an ‘Evening Around the World’ multicultural evening that will raise funds to benefit MJMC clients.
The event is set for Friday, March 10 at St. Andrew’s United Church. The doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the dinner starts at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $35 each, available online from SaskTix.ca or in-person from the Moose Jaw Events Centre Box Office.
Tickets entitle guests to dinner and entertainment — dancing, music, and a fashion show — generously prepared by MJMC clients from countries such as Colombia, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Ukraine, and the Philippines, who are excited to share their cultural heritage with their Moose Jaw community.
Marcela Borrero Cruz from Colombia is in Moose Jaw with her husband, who is studying at Saskatchewan Polytechnic. She works fulltime as a dance teacher, and learned her love of dance, music, and traditional Colombian culture from her mother and aunt.
“I am a dancer, so we’re going to do a performance about Colombia, the folklore from my country,” Borrero Cruz explained. “I love dance. I have been a dancer and dance teacher for 10 years. I am a belly dancer, and I also teach Latin dances like salsa, bachata, champeta … and rumba, which is a mix.”
Marim Dendi is from Sudan and will also be performing a traditional dance from her culture. She is a member of the Uduk people, a small ethnic minority in Sudan. Less than 30,000 people speak Uduk, and the civil war has had an outsized impact on them.
“I come to Canada 2003. That time I’m come here, I don’t know anything, no English, nothing. People say hi to me, and I don’t know what is that they say to me,” she laughed.
Dendi wants to share her culture particularly because it is so unknown in Canada. She says it’s difficult to find out anything about her people, her culture, her language, even in the internet age.
A rice dish from Afghanistan will be prepared by Khadija Muslih, who arrived in Canada only last November 2022. Khadija speaks Persian, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan, and said that while her country does get cold and snowy, her first Canadian winter has been “a lot.”
Evening Around the World attendees can look forward to sampling a variety of dishes from different regions of the world and learning about the traditions and customs that shape the identities of these communities.
Nimo Mohamed is from Somalia and will be cooking a Somali snack called Baajiya, which is made with black-eye beans and some vegetables. She’s excited to share the snack with people at the dinner, and she loves trying other foods as well — she plans on trying everything there.
Multicultural events like these are important opportunities to learn appreciation, acceptance, and tolerance of diverse cultures and traditions, said Stefanie Palmer, the MJMC’s executive director. Moose Javians should be seeking to build bridges and become ever more skilled community-builders.
Those interested in contributing to the dinner should call the MJMC office at 306-693-4677 or email reception@mjmcinc.ca to see how they can help.
