UAE | General
Canadian rendezvous in Abu Dhabi
Canadian Club to organise monthly event to connect the expatriate community.
- By Marten Youssef, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:47 March 3, 2008
Abu Dhabi: There is something about being in the presence of fellow Canadians that makes you switch into the lingo, and then makes you feel right at home, even when you are thousands of miles away.
This is the motivation behind the event Canadian Rendezvous Night.
"This is to accommodate the ever growing number of Canadians living in the UAE. There is a great demand for this kind of function, because it gives people the opportunity to relate to others who share that connection to Canada," says president of the Canadian Club Ian McNabb.
Having travelled extensively around the world, McNabb knows the need for Canadians to feel connected with other Canadians.
According to the Canadian Embassy there are more than 12,000 Canadians working and living in the UAE. The Canadian Club is more than a decade old with 500 members who randomly meet for events like Thanksgiving, Canada Day and Christmas.
"We wanted to have something regular and we thought we would have a social get together on the first Wednesday of every month. We even gave it a multilingual name, Rendezvous," McNabb says.
With the two Terry Fox runs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi back-to-back with the diplomatic celebration of Canada Day last month, Canadian presence in the UAE is coming out of the shadows.
The inauguration of the rendezvous will start with its first social gathering this week. The event will be held at PJ O'Reilly's in Le Royal Meridien Hotel, on Wednesday from 6 pm to 11 pm. While McNabb is expecting more than 100 to attend the event he says, the only thing that will keep Canadians from attending the Rendezvous is Canadian Musician Celine Dion's Concert in Dubai.
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