What Avocados Mean

Winter in Naryn hasn't arrived in full force yet this year. By December of last year we already had tons of snow on the ground--this year, strangely enough, Bishkek, usually a much more temperate place, has had far more snow and inclement weather. I am actually spending my December Naryn days wandering around outside looking at the barren, snowless mountains.

While the advance of winter is not discernible by observing the current weather, I discovered a much more pleasant omen of the season in Bishkek. Winter in Kyrgyzstan is also marked by the beginning of avocado season. In the U.S. avocados are plentiful all 365 days of the year in all but the most-isolated, rural outposts. Here, however, avocados are rare and precious and are usually only found in urban settings from December through April. In almost perfect harmony with the start of Advent, I discovered the first avocados of the season in one of my favorite Bishkek markets.

When avocados are precious they carry greater meaning. I brought mine back to Naryn in my carry-on bag, cradled in between some soft new socks I had purchased. A few I gave away to a couple of fellow avocado aficionados who share my affinities, but I saved two to make something particularly satisfying to the taste when one lives in a bright yellow spaceship in the Kyrgyz mountains. A spicy batch of guacamole--a gift of green richness to herald the entrance of the season.

When I am in the U.S., avocados mean very little as they are omnipresent and guacamole can be even found in gas station convenience stores. What a newfound joy it is when something familiar, like the hard-skinned but delicate avocado, suddenly acquires profound new meaning.