CAIRO - Egyptians believe that sweet days are always short, but, for 18-year-old Karam Lotfi, sweet days are also thorny. Karam, a seasonal prickly pear seller, does various jobs throughout the year. But in the summer, he drops whatever he's doing and travels about 300km from his village in Assiut in Upper Egypt to join his friends in the capital, selling these delicious thorny fruits from their carts in the streets. "It's the prickly season and I wouldn't miss it for the world," says Karam who has been selling prickly pears every summer for the past five years now. It's his most profitable line of work and he also likes the change of scene, travelling up to the capital every summer and meeting new people. "The various jobs I do never pay more than LE50 per day, except for teen shawki [prickly pear] selling, which can make me a lot more money, depending on my skill and the effort I put into it.” Karam sells his fruits for LE1, PT75 or PT50, depending on the size. According to him, a prickly pear seller can make profits of LE70 per day. "One good thing about this trade is that you can never make a loss, only a profit," says Karam, who left school after the primary stage. He and his two brothers travel north for the prickly season, while their other six brothers and sisters have other jobs. But there's no sweet without sweat. To make more money, Karam, his brothers and their other friends don't rent a flat to live in in the capital. They simply sleep under their carts in the street, waking for the wholesaler to turn up early in the morning with more teen shawki for them. They don't own their carts. They are lent to them by the distributors, to make sure they buy their goods from them. "It's really hard work, but we used to it," says Karam, who spends a lot of time trying to remove the thorns from his fingers with a pair of tweezers. Some of his colleagues use gloves to protect their hands, but their effectiveness is limited. "Gloves can protect your fingers and hands, but what about the rest of my body? When thorns get into my body, it really hurts.” Prickly pear sellers add to the festive summer mood in Cairo's streets, competing with dozen of other carters selling corn on the cob and cold drinks to the public, especially in parks, gardens and other areas of entertainment. The plant itself is a member of the Cacti family, with typical, large, paddle-shaped plattyclades featuring two sets of thorns: long, needle-like thorns and hair-like short spines that easily penetrate the skin. Its edible fruits exhibit their own set of thorns as well and must therefore be peeled with care. Once the thick layer of skin and the thorns have been removed, the remaining fruit is full of seeds that you can't help swallowing with it. The peeling is always done by the seller; no-one should take these fruits, which grow in desert areas and need very little water and care, home with them, unless, that is, they want to get some nasty thorns stuck in their fingers and hands. As ugly as this plant may appear, nutritionally the prickly pear is a goldmine of vitamins and minerals. With 17 amino acids, high fibre contents, impressive levels of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and bioflavoids, prickly pears are in fact very healthy. But Karam says people eat them, not because they are healthy, but because they're cheap. They're a great treat, for example, for young lovers on a limited budget. Every day, Karam does a brisk trade just a few yards from Tahrir Square. "I really want to go to Tahrir, but I'm quiet busy now. After all, I don't think the fuss in Tahrir will end anytime soon, but the prickly season is very short, so I can go afterwards," adds Karam, who has very good reason to be grateful for the revolution. "At last we no longer have to pay money to the police. We don't have to worry about them chasing us and confiscating our goods." He's also happy that, this year, the prickly pears aren't being exported, because it means there are more to sell here. However, Karam doesn't know why the prices have risen. "Maybe, the political instability is to blame for everything becoming so expensive and we have fewer consumers this year. But I love the feeling of freedom and the fact that the police no longer persecute us.”
