Laghman Province ....takes me back. Meterlam was the alleged burial place of the father of Noah. The Laghman people always sniffed at the "fleshpots" of Kabul. The former DC of the Afghan intel service was from there, predictably murdered.
There's nothing much up there except the road from Kabul to the Khyber..with valleys branching north up into the mountains. I talked to a man from one of the valleys - my friends basically said that with his character if he ever walked into a Mosque, the minaret would fall and crush him - he was murdered 7 months later.
I spent a little over a year in Mehtar Lam; Interesting place overall. My experience there varied from dealing with some effective government officials to some not so much. Curious how you could be in a small village up in the hills and they would have the cell number of a good one if you mentioned the name. Also interesting how you could generate an equally bad reaction if you mentioned a corrupt one. The villagers knew well who was of value to them and not.
If you did right by locals you rarely got shot at, they figured out what Americans were worth working with and not.
