These People Are Buried Alive Every Night, But They Choose To Live That Way

Imagine living in a place where you have to dig out of your house every morning.

This is part of everyday life for the people who live in Shoyna, which is a small, remote village in Northern Russia. The desert town is completely surrounded by sand dunes. Pair that with coastal winds, and there’s no way for these people to stop their houses from getting buried every night.

Shoyna used to be a thriving fishing port, but after overfishing in the White Sea led to increasingly unsuccessful trade, sand dunes began taking over in the 1980s.

The Sand Buried Village of Shoyna https://t.co/HZZC1Kvt02 via @alk3r #wordpress #travel #nature #village #Shoyna #Russia #photography #life

— The ALK3R Post (@alk3r) July 18, 2016

Now less than 300 people live there with few opportunities in the way of work besides digging out houses and hunting geese.

They don’t close their doors at night and don’t even bother sweeping the sand out of their homes. Who can blame them?

The sand village of Shoyna Russia, where the westerly wind can bury houses up to the roof in a single night#travel pic.twitter.com/gsgyNj9KgP

— sobore (@sobore) July 14, 2016

Despite all the difficulties they face, they are proud of their little town and have learned to live with the sand.

I applaud these people’s tireless efforts, but I definitely wouldn’t be able to deal with that every single day.

(via Messy Nessy Chic)

There’s something seriously unsettling about someone’s house being buried up to the roof every night. I really hope for their sakes that the sand never goes higher than that.