One IKEA Sofa Can Unite a Village

How one practical piece of furniture brought comfort to the locals and foreigners

The friendly neighborhood goat

I really didn’t even want to go but my Australian roommate convinced me of this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn’t miss out on, mate!” After a night of bidding farewell to a fellow English teacher, I arrived home from the Shanghai club at four in the morning. I was woken up an hour later to hurry up or I wouldn’t be able to come.

I frantically stuffed all of the warm clothes I had into a bag (being a Floridian anywhere with actual seasons was a nightmare — everything I owned had holes in it because… fashion). I knew the journey to get to this Northern remote Chinese village for Chinese New Year was going to be long, I just didn’t expect to be moving so much. I was definitely still drunk. We went from the metro, to the train station, to several kilometers of walking, to a car, and then finally to the back of a scooter with my luggage tied to the back, we made it to this village.

I really didn’t know what to expect and I really couldn’t make up the things I saw even if I tried. I saw a goat tied to a pole, standing on a pile of rubble and bleating like a rooster in the early morning. Every “house” had a stockpile of wood outside as well as an unnecessary amount of corn. Every house looked…