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 CHINGUETTI, Mauritania (AP) - On nights when the wind hisses across the dunes, the old man sits on his straw mat, draws a blanket around his shoulders and counts his money.
In the morning, Sidahmed Ould Magaya, 75, will be trapped inside his concrete one-room house, the wooden door sealed shut by a wall of sand accumulated overnight. In exchange for about $6, workers will liberate him, hauling the yellow sand away in burlap bags.
At that rate, he has to sell a goat a month to pay for keeping the desert at bay in a country where the dunes are said to be shifting at an estimated 4 to 6 miles per year, according to government data.
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