In this picture, Barney Forsythe helps Sardar Sherzad's daughter, Lima, write her name. The Sherzads were living with the Forsythes when this picture was taken in March.

It was March when I last visited with Sardar Sherzad, his wife and their three young children. They were living in Fulton, Mo. then, in the house of Barney Forsythe, a retired U.S. Army General and the president of Westminster College.

Sherzad had been Forysthe’s chief translator in Afghanistan in 2003 when he worked in Sherzad’s homeland to help set up a national military academy.

In January, Sherzad and his family came to the U.S. under the same special visa program for translators that my colleagues Doug Moore and Christine Byers wrote about in a story that ran in today’s Post-Dispatch. Like the other Afghan and Iraqi translators in their story, Sherzad fled to the U.S. for safety because his work as a translator for U.S. forces made him a target in his home country.

I called Sherzad last night to see how he was adjusting to life in Fulton. Back in March, Sherzad was anxiously looking for a job, hoping to move into his own place with his family, and was studying to get his driver’s license.

Compared to many other translators, Sherzad seems to be doing quite well. He found a job in April with Ovid Bell Press where he helped stack books and fill orders. But he said it was difficult, manual work that required a lot of heavy lifting. So he was happy to find a different job two months later more in line with his academic training. (Sherzad received a medical degree from Kabul Medical College.)

He is now a medical technologist in the toxicology lab of the Department of Corrections. He prepares and tests urine samples from inmates and people who are on probation, looking mostly for traces of drugs. The job provides him a solid paycheck and good benefits for him and and his family.

in April, Sherzad and his family moved into their own place — a duplex just a couple of blocks from the Forsythes and from his workplace.

Sherzad now has a driver’s license, but he bikes to work because he doesn’t have his own car yet. But if he needs to go someplace far, he often borrows a car from the Forsythes.

A number of Sherzad’s friends from Afghanistan who also worked as translators have been moving to the U.S. in recent months. Sherzad talks to them often, but has discovered that most of them have not been as fortunate as him.

“They cannot find jobs to support their families,” Sherzad said.

So instead, they take low-paying jobs at restaurants or Wal-Mart as they hope to find more professional jobs. Some of his friends are now considering taking temporary high-paying jobs as translators back in Afghanistan for international companies and agencies so they can make money.

“I am lucky,” Sherzad said. “My degree helped me a lot. And Barney helped me a lot in finding this job. My friends are jealous.”

Still, there are plenty of challenges. He wants to get a master’s degree in public health, but does not know how he can afford the tuition or juggle school with work.

His wife, Breshna, still does not speak English and is having a hard time adjusting to her new life in Fulton. She feels isolated at home all day and misses her family, Sherzad said. They haven’t been able to find an English tutor to help her. In the meantime, their oldest daughter Lima, who has quickly picked up English in kindergarten, is teaching her some words.

But probably the biggest worry on Sherzad’s mind these days is figuring out how to bring his parents to the U.S. He worries about their safety – especially since what he saw when he visited them in Afghanistan in October. He went back to Kabul for a month to help organize his brother’s wedding and to visit his sick father.

Sherzad was dismayed by how Kabul had changed since he had left. It is more dangerous now for the people who live there, he said. The people there are also struggling with high food and gas prices, he said.

“Their life didn’t look like the life of a human being,” he said.

Sherzad was sad to have to leave his parents back home, but was also happy to return to the safety of Fulton. After seeing his war-town homeland, Fulton looked even more beautiful – and affordable – than it had the first time he had arrived there in January, he said.

“It’s a lot better than the place I left,” he said.

(To read my original story about Sherzad and his family, click here.)

The Grade is the St. Louis region’s premier blog on education and child welfare. To read other recent posts, go to www.stltoday.com/thegrade.