Zambia’s UN ambassador dials NJ teen’s phone by accident, ends up speaking at his high school

Wrong number leads Zambian diplomat to NJ school

WEST ORANGE, N.J. — Talk about diplomacy.

The Zambian ambassador to the United Nations made a speech Wednesday at New Jersey’s West Orange High School to make amends for dialing the wrong phone number.

In the fall, Ambassador Lazarous Kapambwe was trying to reach a diplomat from Sierra Leone. But the number he dialed was one digit off. He ended up calling Logan Svitzer, a student who was sitting in his U.S. history class at the school.

His teacher, Robbin Sweeney, was so annoyed that she called the number and got the ambassador. She thought it was a prank — and spent 10 minutes on the phone with him to verify who he was.

Kapambwe spoke at the school to make up for the inconvenience. He told students about Zambia and urged them to consider diplomatic service as a career.

Information from: The Star-Ledger, www.nj.com/starledger