Certificates of Training

After misspellings and formatting errors only half the certificates ended up on good card stock, scrawled with vineyard rows of Pashtu: military rank, and names and fathers’ names. But after the ceremony, photographs, and handshakes and hands held to the heart, and blessings they only asked if I would please make new diplomas in English. English, they said, is official. The Pashtu lovely, but no one believes it.