Harbingers of love and joy, bringing messages to the heart and not the mind, they are happy in their work and received with equal warmth – most of the time. They come to your door bearing bouquets of flowers for every possible occasion – a wedding, a birthday, even a joyful divorce. They are Jeddah's very own “Flower men”. “I have worked 15 years as a flower seller, learning through practice and experience the art of floral arrangements,” says 83-year-old Khalifa Ahmad Mustafa, veteran of the field. “Our profession deals with sentiments, and I love to bring happiness to people's hearts. I feel so happy when I deliver a bouquet of roses with a message of congratulations or glad tidings.” “My colleagues and I prepare wedding halls, as we are doing now to get this hall ready for the bride. As you can see tonight's bride has asked for a specific type of rose, insisting they all be white. This is normal. The bride chooses the color of the flowers to go with her wedding dress or the wedding hall, or according to her favorite color, though most women prefer white roses and only occasionally red.” “Men, from my experience, prefer yellow with white, or yellow with red roses, but actually only a few are bothered,” Mustafa says. “Most of the time it's women who order. Often the people who order the flowers prefer to arrange them themselves.” “The best, in my opinion, and most expensive flowers are orchids. A branch of around ten orchids costs SR150. They are imported from Holland,” he says. “Roses cost between SR 5 and SR 10 each and are grown in Tabuk and Taif. Some time ago they used to come from Wadi Fatima, but sadly it seems production there has stopped,” Mustafa says. “I've only experienced good will through my work, except on one occasion. A man ordered a bouquet of roses for a lot of money, and gave his fiancée's address. I went to deliver the bouquet, but the moment she saw the sender's name she told me to throw it in the garbage! They must have been having problems!” Mustafa laughs. Occupation of love “We all love our work, because it is an occupation of love,” says Muhammad Iskandar. “Sometimes we have to drive a long way to make a delivery but we don't feel tired because the person we deliver the roses to is always kind and generous.” Muhammad Shafi is 23 years old, the youngest employed in the group. “Someone who arranges flowers needs to be sensitive,” he says. “There's no room here for confrontational or stressed-out people.” That's not to say their work is free from confrontation, however. “One day a woman wanted to surprise her husband at work with a bouquet of roses,” says Mustafa Ibrahim Ghouji. “She took great care in the selection and arrangement of roses and it took me a long time to get it exactly how she wanted. When I finally took the bouquet to the office where her husband worked a receptionist directed me to a rather stern and serious looking man.” “I greeted the man and handed him the bouquet of roses,” Ghouji continues. “He took one look at the name of the woman on the card and threw the whole lot away! Then he grabbed me by the neck and started shouting, ‘Who is this woman? I have no such relations with women, you rude man!'” “On hearing the shouts, employees from neighboring offices came out. One of them picked up the card from the floor and realized the flowers were meant not for the man still holding me by the neck, but his colleague on another floor! The receptionist had not read the full name on the card!” “Then the actual husband of the woman turned up, picked up what was left of the roses and apologized for his colleague. He called me to his office and gave me some money to make up for all the trouble, and apologized.” “I've never forgotten that incident, and now when I'm sent to such places I always leave them with the receptionist and ask him to pass them on. If he refuses, as some receptionists do, I get him to call the employee on the telephone to avoid any possible confusion.” Public humiliation Not all errors end so happily, however. Ishac Nours Yaqoub says one occasion will live with him to the end of his days. “It was certainly the most embarrassing situation I've been in,” he says. “It was a wedding and I had decorated the platform where the bride and bridegroom sit with red and white flowers. When the bride's procession came in I walked out to receive her, but she suddenly started screaming at me and saying I'd ruined her wedding night! She kept shouting at me, calling me an imbecile in front of all the guests! She didn't calm down until her brother stepped in and told me that the red flowers must be replaced with the violet ones she had actually ordered. It was my mistake, but the humiliation was terrible, all happening in front of the guests!” If joy can end in tears, then so can tears turn to joy. “A man and his sister asked me to deliver some white roses to an “istiraha” leisure complex in Jeddah,” says Sameer Mou'min Rahaba. “When I arrived he took me in and helped me to arrange the flowers just the way his sister wanted. Out of curiosity, I asked what the occasion was, and he said his sister's husband had been torturing her for refusing to stay in a flat in her father's building, even though he was financially well-off. Despite his abuse she wouldn't change her mind, and eventually she asked for a divorce. Her husband refused, but when he was offered a large amount of money he apparently saw the light. So they were having a big get-together to celebrate her divorce!”
