I was just reading the blogs kept by some friends I got to know while I was in Ukraine, other people working there with MCC. And I learned about the recent increase in gas prices over there. I hear that gas will cost 147 percent more this winter than it did last winter. And I wonder how people will cope with this. Just before I returned home, transportation costs increased quite a lot as well. People are struggling enough to make ends meet without all these price increases. I'm not as concerned about the internat, because I know they still heat with coal (though I'm sure this will still affect them as well). But I wonder about the Semerikov's, the family I lived with. I think about how they just had gas put in last summer, and about how they were so happy with their first winter's use of it. I remember Larisa telling me how it's so much better having gas. How before, the room containing the coal stove was always so hot, while the other rooms further away from it were usually quite cold. How with gas, the temperature of the house can be regulated and all the rooms are the same. I wonder about how much this price increase will affect them, if they'll be able to afford to heat their house. And I think about the unusually cold winter southern Ukraine saw last winter, and I hope it will not be the same this year.