From left to right: Susan Keenan, Ambassador Teplitz and Bruce Keenan
At a recent Open House hosted by the U.S. Embassy, Nepal, HCC Co-Founders Bruce, and Susan Keenan, and HCC Director of Nepal Programs Sadie Green had the opportunity to meet the U.S. Ambassador to Nepal Alaina B. Teplitz. Ambassador Teplitz has been with the U.S. State Department since 1991 and currently works as U.S. Ambassador to Nepal to:
“[build] upon 70 years of partnership and cooperation in order to enhance prosperity, encourage
democracy and ensure stability while strengthening Nepal-United States relations.”
“Ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz.” U.S. Embassy in Nepal, np.usembassy.gov/embassy/kathmandu/ambassador/.
While meeting with Ambassador Teplitz, Bruce and Susan were able to listen to her
updates about her work in Nepal. In turn, Bruce and Susan shared HCC’s history, overall
mission, and current programming. Ambassador Teplitz kindly extended an invitation to
the teenage visitors from our friends The Maya Gold Foundation to visit the U.S.
Embassy in Kathmandu.
It was an honor to meet Ambassador Teplitz at the beautiful residence of the U.S. Ambassador in Kathmandu. We look forward to speaking to her again soon and are grateful for the opportunity to meet her.
Finally the day arrived and we had to arrive at the venue by 3. We rushed to the models and did the final fittings. By that time, Dinesh Uncle, Hira Aunt and Bruce Uncle had arrived. As my sequence was on the 4th we had a huge rush backstage that let me meet them only for a brief minute and we couldn’t even click a picture together. Show started at 7. After the third sequence we had the models change into our designs. Finally, our design was on the runway, and we walked at the end of the sequence with our showstopper, Simpal Kharel. While walking on the runway, there were a huge number of audiences, included; designers, press media, journalists, photographers, ambassadors, etc. After our sequence, we went backstage and we really had a roller coaster of emotions. All those sleepless nights, stresses, no meal days and all the difficulties we went through were finally over. It was worth everything. This concludes my three years of learning and we had the chance to showcase it to the crowd and people. After our sequence we finally had the time to breather. All along these past three months it felt as if somebody had put on something in our neck as we were suffocating but now it felt as if it had been let go. We could breathe in peace.
After the runway we had a huge feast and that tasted like the best meal that I had for the entire life.
