Comoros

In the Comoros, the sand for a daughter’s house can start piling up when she’s a newborn.

Here, a husband moves into his wife’s home. It’s the family’s job to build a house for each daughter before she marries.

Houses are expensive. To keep costs down, families fetch the sand from the beach themselves, a little at a time. The building often goes on for more than ten years. When the money runs out, work stops. When it comes back, work starts again.

Unfinished houses are everywhere.