Our Pirate Wire Migrant Christmas in the Darien

A recap, with receipts, of gift-giving to migrants in Necoclí

Happy Holidays, piratas! Today’s post is a little different than usual. It’s about a recent action we at PWS carried out for migrants in the Darien Gap— in which we brought our own pirate Santa to give gifts to migrants to try and bring a bit of kindness to a community struggling financially.

The Darien Gap, the lawless jungle crossing between South and Central America, is the world's most dangerous migration land route. This year a record number, more than half a million people, walked from Colombia to Panama braving a myriad of dangers— from armed criminal groups to natural hazards to physical challenges like severe dehydration and exhaustion— all of which can be fatal in such a remote location.

A lot of these migrants are forced to wait in Colombia for their turn to cross, sometimes for weeks. The crew here at PWS came up with the wild idea of bringing them Christmas gifts in person! And it went wonderfully.

Not only was it an opportunity to show kindness to people willing to risk their lives for a better future, it was a way to show the human side of a community that is often portrayed in media and popular culture as either "victims" or "illegals" rather than people.

The children, most of whom likely received no presents for Christmas, were ecstatic.

It also gave us a chance to talk with migrants about to cross the Gap in a more informal setting, such as Jesus (pictured below), who told us his daughter was the inspiration for seeking a better life in the US.

Our kind friend, Emmanuel, a Haitian-American who lives in Colombia, volunteered to travel to the Darien Gap from his home in Bogota to be our Santa! Perfect since he speaks fluent English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole (and is charming to boot!). And our Pirate Santa, killed it.

Though his sleigh was perhaps a bit more Caribbean than artic.

While we were there, Joshua wrote a piece for the London Times, profiling many of the migrants we met, and explaining the dangers they face in crossing, which you can read here.

Thanks to incredibly generous support from readers, friends, and some very kind strangers on Twitter we massively over-raised funds. A little more than we could reasonably spend on goods (don’t worry, we are going to donate the balance).

Emmanuel very generously paid his own expenses to travel to Necoclí and for his own lodging.

We’re dropping the receipts below in the interest of transparency.

What we spent the money on:

Dollar City: Canned tuna, fruit juices, crackers, and a shit-ton of candy: 903,000 COP ($234 USD)

Santa Costume: 200,000 COP: ($51.92 USD)

Farmavida: 100 feminine hygiene products: $69,000 COP ($17.91 USD)

Tiendas ARA: Mixed nuts, dried fruit, more tuna, more crackers, more juices: 104,390 COP ($27.00)

A moto-taxi for one hour to transport goods and Santa to where migrants were camped: 50,000 COP (USD 12.98)

One really nice meal for our Santa, Emanuel, who traveled to Necocli on his own dime, and paid for his own hotel: 98,000 COP ($24.55 USD)

Subtotal: $368.36 USD

We raised $1034 on GoFundMe (more than double our initial goal)

We need to check how much GoFundMe takes from those funds, but that leaves us with a balance of $665.64 before their cut.

Obviously, we plan to donate that to a charity. If you have a suggestion on a good one that helps migrants, feel free to drop it in the comments. In the meantime, Joshua is looking into Colombia-based orgs for a good match.

Though Joshua does humbly request his bus tickets from Medellin to Necocli be covered, as travel expenses were a bit higher than we expected, and he, like Emmanuel was paying out of his own pocket. (250,000 COP: $64.90 USD).

But the event was an overwhelming success, and we thank all of you for your support, and for making it happen!

PWS piratas are the best people in the world. Happy holidays and thank you for subscribing!

Hasta pronto!