Couchsurfing In A Slum

We started the trip in the early morning and after travelling for the entire day we arrived at a small bus stop in the evening, about 5h away from Mombasa. Law deterred any busses from travelling at night which meant we slept in the bus until 4am when the sun started coming up. I had been on the phone to a man called Samuel while travelling - I had received this number just a couple of days before from the couchsurfing website.

"Will you be there soon? And are you safe?" Samuel asks me over the phone as we start approaching the city of Mombasa. He had been texting us the entire trip, he must've been somewhat worried about us.

"Yes, we'll be there quite soon, I just asked the bus driver and he is saying that we'll be there at about 09:30. See you there Sam." I answer and rest my head on my travel pillow. We arrive on time and as we get out of the bus we see Sam waving to us.

"Nice to meet you, let's just get straight to my place to drop your bags off. You must be tired and exhausted after such a long trip." Sam said caring and started walking with us over a couple of roads to get to the next matatu station.

"Ah it wasn't too bad actually, after all the seats were quite comfortable. It was only that the overhead compartments that were loose and made way too much noise throughout the entire trip." Felix responded. We found the right matatu and went to his place, which turned out to be not in the town of Mombasa but in an upgraded slum about 30 minutes away called Magongo. Concrete and tin walls with rusty metal roofs covered the landscape before us when we got out of the matatu. Everywhere we saw little shops, butchers and small repair places. Little home restaurants were located all over and you could smell burnt hair as we walk past a couple of goat heads lying on a grill. This endless maze Sam knew how to navigate perfectly and he brought us safely to his little concrete home. Small and quite warm but as a young student he definitely had made the most of what he had.

"Just drop your bags there, what would you like to do now?" Sam asked as he pointed towards a little corner of his room.

"We were thinking of going to the beach, we crave the sea and water after spending so much time in the dusty areas." I reply as I put my bags in front of Felix's big purple backpack.

After a lovely refreshing time at the beach we get back to the slum in the evening, on the way we pick up two people from Argentina who would also be staying at Sam's place. This first night in Mombasa felt a little like hell, not much due to the place we were staying in but more due to the unbearable heat and mosquitoes which penetrated my body throughout the entire night. We spent the entire next day at the beach and after a little meal Felix and I went to a beach party to dance and enjoy the gentle breeze from the sea. We happened to meet some nice people and because of the busses not driving to town until 5am we decided to go home with them. They lived in Mtwapa, a small town just north of Mombasa and supposedly the fastest growing small town in all of Africa (so we were told).

"Hey Sam, it looks like we won't make it to your place tonight anymore. We are fine and found some nice people that we will stay with. See you tomorrow." I wrote in a text after getting into the matatu to Mtwapa. The following day Felix and I went back into town to meet up with Sammy who had been terribly worried he tells us.

"Don't worry Sammy, we are fine and had a good time last night. We'll be sleeping there again tonight because Margaret invited us for dinner. Come with us if you feel that it is not safe for us to be alone." I said to Sammy as we walked through the dusty streets of Mombasa looking for some cloths with traditional african patterns as souvenirs. He didn't seem to keen to come but gave in and took the matatu to Mtwapa with us. We had a brief moment all together at Margarets flat and it seemed like Sammy actually started feeling more comfortable with the situation.

"Ok, I have to go back to Magongo now. I'll see you guys." Sam said as he put on his flip flops and hugged us good-bye. A few minutes later I receive a text from him.

"I understand that you guys are used to a different lifestyle. But if you didn't like my place you should've just said so. I want you to know that I am very hurt and this is also the reason I left." is what Sammy sent to us in this message. In utter shock we stared at one another, we were lost for words. Simply because this came completely out of the blue, he had seemed so normal just a few minutes earlier and all of a sudden we were in the position of having left all our stuff at his place and with him being angry/hurt at us it felt incredibly uncomfortable. The following night went by slowly, I turned restlessly in my bed as my thoughts and the constant heat prevented my eyes from closing.

Two days later we met up with Sammy on Big Tree Beach and had quite a good time overall, he had a new couchsurfer from Italy staying at his place now. However we knew we couldn't deal with him constantly being worried about us. So we went back to his place in the early evening. We took our things and Luca, the italian guy, to Margaret's place in Mtwapa. Finally we were able to relax and didn't have to worry about our bags and Sammy any longer. It had definitely been an interesting first couchsurfing experience.