Sawubona readers, Our third Olympic Day is complete! After hosting events in Mbabane and Kukhanyeni two weekends ago, the EOCGA team executed our final edition of the event this past weekend in Siteki. The support we received was overwhelming (in a good way), and this was especially so in the Siteki community. Between the three […]

Hello everyone, our time here is quickly ending but we wanted to share with you some of our last adventures before we leave! The following weekend after our Kruger trip, we went to the Malolotja Nature Reserve. On the way there, our guide showed us to Maguga Dam which is the only dam in Eswatini […]

Hello Everyone, Jabu and Busi here! Another busy and eventful couple weeks have passed for Narissa (Busi) and I (Jabu), and we have a lot of adventures to catch you all up on! In the middle of February we had the opportunity to see some familiar faces from Canada as we travelled to visit Paul […]

Sanibonani everyone, Un jani? (How are you?) Ngiyaphila (I’m fine) Another month has come and gone, and I am now halfway through my internship here in Eswatini. Since my last blog post I have been working on several different tasks in the office and at the Olympafrica Centre (OAC).  We have three major events coming up […]

Along with keeping busy at work for the past few weeks, we have packed our weekends full of activities (when the weather allows us to).  Our first weekend here Janice (our landlord) invited us to join her family at church! It was a great service with lots of singing.  After service we socialized with some […]

 Sanibonani (Hello) everyone! After a very long (and unplanned) 52 hours of travelling and 2 hotel visits, I have arrived in the beautiful Kingdom of Eswatini! I have now been here for 2 weeks and have adjusted to living here quite nicely. In this blog Narissa and I will both briefly talk about what we […]

Hi Everyone! I can’t believe that the month of November, my last full month in Swaziland, has come to a close. Very soon I’ll be swapping the African sun for Canadian snow! With only a couple weeks left, I’ve been working to finish up my assignments in the office, continue learning about and experiencing other sport organizations […]

Hey Everyone! I was told again and again how quickly time goes by when you’re here, but I don’t think I was prepared for just how fast time really does fly! I’ve now been in Swaziland for two months and while I’ve still got another month and a half, I’m already planning my next trip […]

Sanibonani (hello) everyone! Wow, my first few weeks in Swaziland have flown by! Although I faced some not so lovely flight complications at the beginning of my trip and 3 long days of travel, I arrived in this beautiful country where I was immediately welcomed with so much warmth and generosity. I was definitely a little overwhelmed […]

By: Matt Milligan Hello everyone! Another month has flown by here in Swaziland, we have been very busy working on our assignments, helping to organize Olympic Day, making friends and creating memories. As Jon and I worked diligently on our assigned projects, we have been able to spend a few days per week at the […]

By: Jonatan Osorio De Leon Hello readers, family, and friends back home Jonatan here! Un Jani! (How are you!) One month down already? Man, how quickly time flies. First off, I’m glad to say that I feel as if I have fully adapted to living here in Swaziland and boy oh boy has it ever […]

By: Benjamin Kent Sawubona Readers! Wow, the end of March already! It’s amazing to look back at all of the fun times I have had so far and, since my blog post about my Safari, work has been getting more hectic– but in a fun-filled way! Preparation for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) […]

By: Benjamin Kent Sawubona Readers! Just another update from here in Swaziland. Work has been pretty hectic as of late, preparing for the Swaziland National Team to depart for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in less than 2 weeks! The preparation has involved me continuing the work of Nick by preparing a referral handbook for […]

By: Benjamin Kent Sawubona Readers!! This is the second of two back-to-back posts I have! I felt that there was so much more I could talk about, both in terms of work and an exciting experience I had this past weekend. There was some rain this past weekend, but despite rain’s normal tendency to “rain on […]

By Nick Hayman: Sawubona! It’s been a while but Swaziland has offered me many more new and exciting experiences. It’s currently my last week at work and I’ll be finishing up my big school project on the wheelchair basketball program the following week. Most of my work the last month or so has been around […]

By Nick Hayman: Hi there, Nick here with some more Swazi shenanigans. It’s been quite a slow past 3 weeks around the office as there have not been too many events scheduled and it has been raining almost all the time. I’d estimate that 2 of every 3 days I’ve been here it rained at […]

By Nick Hayman: Sawubona and hello; Nick here, or as they now call me in Swati, Sipho (“Seep-Fow”, it means “Gift” in Swati). 2 weeks in and the Swaziland Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (SOCGA) have thrown me right into the fire with events of many kinds. Let’s dig right in. One of the first […]

By Matthew Hagopian: Sawubona, It’s been quite a while since I last posted in this blog, but I would like to recap on what took place during my final few weeks with SOCGA. If you have been following this blog then you would already have known about the adventure I set off to do with […]

By Nick Hayman: Sawubona and hello! After a longwinded journey from Toronto to Mbabane which included planes, trains, automobiles and a rather strange part of Frankfurt, Germany (Maybe I should have just stayed in the airport for that layover…), I’ve finally made it. My first 4 days in Swaziland have only involved settling in, as […]

By Matthew Hagopian: Sawubona! It’s becoming very hard to believe that I will be leaving in roughly one more month. It feels like this internship is just flying by. With that being said, I think I can comfortably say that I’m taking advantage of each and every day that I’m spending here. Work has been […]

By Matthew Hagopian: Sawubona, This will be my second blog post after being here for just over one month and finally settling here in Mbabane, Swaziland. I think I am officially feeling at home here. I’ve met tons of people by just greeting everyone I’ve walked by, and I’m starting to even get noticed by […]

By Matthew Hagopian: Sawubona! After a few hectic days of sorting out my flights, I’ve finally made it to Swaziland! After arriving I was a bit jet lagged (having stayed up for 38 hours straight), but without a doubt very exciting having finally arrived. I was greeted outside of the airport by my new co-workers: […]

By Alexander Longwell: Sawubona! This will be my 9th and final addition to this blog. It was an amazing journey filled with fantastic experiences and memories I will keep with me for the rest of my life. I have enjoyed every minute of being down here, especially those spent with the children, teaching them how […]

By Alexander Longwell: Sawubona, Time really does fly when you’re having fun, hard to believe that I’ll be back on Canadian soil in less than a month. But before that day comes there is still plenty for me to do. The last few weeks of March has seen us wrap up the first leg of […]

By Alexander Longwell: Sawubona!! Hard to believe it’s March already! Only 5 more weeks left with SOCGA and I can tell it’s going to fly by like every other week has! It took a few weeks but I was finally given my Swazi name by the volunteers at the OAC. I am now called Themba […]

By Alexander Longwell: Hello everyone! This weekend already marks the halfway point of my internship here in Swaziland. It has been an amazing journey so far with lots of memorable experiences. The start of this week has been the toughest for me, due to the long hours and amount of work we have had. I […]

By Alexander Longwell: Sawubona! Another fantastic week in Swaziland is in the books. Last week I was kept busy finalizing the Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR) Action plan, designing pamphlets and invitations and writing letters to different government officials inviting them to be honorary guests at the QBR. These tasks keep me extremely busy, but is […]

By Alexander Longwell: Hello again! I’m now completing my 1st full month in Swaziland and it has been fantastic, however it hasn’t all been positive. Before I say anything else, these negatives are my own fault and have nothing to do with the country, its people or SOCGA. Long story short I lost my debit card, […]

By: Alexander Longwell Sawubona! Despite the Swazi times my stay here seems to be flying by, hard to believe it’s already been 3 weeks. I’m now well into working on preparations for the Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR) which will be in Swaziland between May 8th and 11th 2017. My task is to write the proposal […]

By: Alexander Longwell         It took some time but I finally made it to Swaziland. I arrived at the King Mswati III airport around 11am last Saturday January 14th after taking a few very long flights from Toronto. When I arrived I was greeted by Dalton Dlamini, OAC coordinator and a few […]

By Rob Hinschberger: This past weekend we had two workshops take place at the Centre. One involved Education USA through their Embassy in Swaziland that offered information of scholarship opportunities. The one that SOCGA held was a leadership forum for Women in Sport. It was impressive to see 53 ladies sign up and commit to […]

By Rob Hinschberger: October is known as tourism month in Africa and I was able to get my fair share of adventure in! While Bombaso’s has been fairly quiet and empty, I have had the pleasure of getting to know a couple South African gentlemen, Henrik and Danni, who have been working here for a […]

By Rob Hinschberger: Good day! You hear it from other Scholars on how quickly your time will move but nonetheless, it is surprising to think I’ve worked five weeks with SOCGA. We have been hit with some cool and rainy weather, particularly on the weekends during free time, so I have been a bit limited […]

By Rob Hinschberger: Sawubona! After 20 hours of flights, 10 hours of layover, and 200 Rand in overweight luggage, I arrived at King Mswati III International Airport in Swaziland, Africa!! My first mistake and laugh occurred two minutes after being greeted by Dalton, a friendly and soon to be co-worker at the Olympicafrica Center. Heading […]

By Mitch McSweeney: Sadly, the end of mine and Jenna’s internship in Swaziland is nearing an end and we will be departing back to Canada in two weeks time. It will be sad to say goodbye to the culture and lifestyle we have become immersed in, the beautiful country we have spent the past four […]

By: Jenna Brown I can’t believe Mitch and I have 3 weeks left in Swaziland! Although May seems so far away from when we first arrived, these last 3 months have flown by, as will the last 3 weeks. We have made so many great friends here, and it won’t be easy to say goodbye […]

By Mitch McSweeney: Sawubona! It is now the month of July and there is only about five weeks left until Jenna and I complete our internships and return to Canada. As usual, it has been extremely busy at SOCGA and a ton has happened since I posted last. To begin, the OlympAfrica Centre (OAC) has […]

By Jenna Brown: Sawubona! The past couple of weeks have been packed with so much work and fun, I don’t know where to start! As I’ve mentioned, our office was getting ready for Olympic Day events in three communities – Siphofaneni, Mbabane and Lobamba. The events were attended by more than 2,000 participants in total, […]

By Mitch McSweeney: Hi Everyone! It’s now been one month and a bit since Jenna and I have been in Swaziland, and it has really picked up at the SOCGA offices and the Olympafrica Centre. I’ve been going back and forth between the SOCGA and OAC offices, and last weekend I was a part of […]

By Jenna Brown: I can’t believe it’s almost been a full month since Mitch and I arrived in Swaziland! We have been quite busy since our last blog post, so here’s what I’ve been up to. The SOCGA office is currently organizing Olympic Day for the end of June. The event focuses on getting everyone […]

By Rachel Ivey: Sawubona! This week, I went to our committee’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Olympafrica Sports Development Centre in Lobamba. The AGM is where the SOCGA Executive Board summarizes the last year and gives recommendations for the future. There were representatives from each of the National Sport Associations present. I was able […]

By Rachel Ivey: The first week of my SportWORKS internship at the Swaziland Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (SOCGA) has been very busy. I feel like I’ve done so much since I’ve been here. Here’s a list of some tasks I’ve completed: Created an action plan and volunteer application forms for the Sport Values 4 […]

By Amanda MacKenzie: Our first session of the Leaders in Training runoff program Sport Values 4 Life program is complete.  The first 5 days consisted of teaching them about: The role of a coach Safety Organization Planning Leadership Teaching and learning Nutrition HIV, AIDS and life skills Each day they participants learned a new skill […]

By Amanda MacKenzie: I have been at the Swaziland Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association (SOCGA) for 3 months now. I have been able to attend many kids workshops that they call Positive Play Days (PPDs). The first one I attended was called the Mbabane 2015 Child Health Day. It took place at the Prince of […]