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A native Californian, Jan Baumgartner is a writer and book editor dividing her time between Maine, Mexico, and California. Her essays on Mexico are included in two anthologies, Solamente en San Miguel Volume II (Parroquia Press, November 2010) available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Powells.com, and Lady Jane Miscellany (San Francisco Bay Press, 2009). She is a frequent contributor to Banderas News in Puerto Vallarta. Her background includes scriptwriting, comedy writing for the No. California Emmy Awards, and travel writing for The New York Times. She has worked as a grant writer for the non-profit sector in the fields of academia, AIDS, and wildlife conservation for NGO's in the U.S. and Africa. Her articles and essays have appeared in numerous online and print publications including the NYT, Bangor Daily News, SCOOP New Zealand, Open.Salon, Wolf Moon Journal, Media for Freedom Nepal, and Banderas News in Mexico. In addition to working on a memoir about her husband's death from ALS and how travels and living in Africa became her greatest sources of inspiration, she writes extensively about life observations in Mexico.
Saturday, April 11, 2009 The Sweet Low Down - Mexico Way (18 comments)
Memories are like ghosts ~ just when you think you're living, alive again, they come back to haunt you, draping across your body like gossamer; thin and veiled, nearly weightless, but enough as to feel yesterday breathing against your skin.
Saturday, December 27, 2008 Mexican Milagros (13 comments)
A Barking Man, a Parrot who thinks its a Rooster, Drama Cat, Origins of Laughter, Beginnings and Endings, Marking Time by Church Bells
Tuesday, September 30, 2008 Tamales and Tacos and Beers, Oh My! (12 comments)
Grabbing the Bull by the Horns: Eating well in San Miguel ~ For Less
Friday, August 15, 2008 OEN Colleague Muhammad Khurshid Safe in Peshawar (20 comments)
Today I received word from friend and colleague, Muhammad Khurshid, that he had made it out of the tribal villages and to safety in Peshwar.
Friday, June 27, 2008 The Last Night (4 comments)
"Somewhere the Sky touches the Earth, and the name of that place is the End." African saying (Wakamba)
Thursday, June 26, 2008 In the Blink of an Eye (16 comments)
Life, death, and the final days of struggle with ALS.
Saturday, August 25, 2007 The Bear Necessities (3 comments)
One of the last true symbols of a disappearing wilderness makes an unexpected and welcome visit.
Monday, July 23, 2007 "Law of Parties" (7 comments)
No celebrating here. If you're present, and someone gets killed, your "party" becomes a date with execution
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 Don't Drink the Water (1 comments)
New warning to be posted at all U.S. ports of entry: Enter at your own risk - drinking the water or eating much of the food supply may be hazardous to your health
Sunday, June 10, 2007 The Amateur Birder
You too can be a real amateur ornithologist!
Saturday, May 12, 2007 Of Hummingbirds and Osprey (3 comments)
The small gifts in life are often the greatest treasures. When life overwhelms, solace patiently awaits, right outside your door
Saturday, April 14, 2007 From Imus to Africa: Racism Here, There, Everywhere (1 comments)
It is an undeniable fact; color is a major factor in nearly all facets of life - whether in relationships, housing, jobs, education, or incarceration - color is always front and center.
Thursday, February 8, 2007 Not Dead Enough: An Inauspicious Milestone
2007 marks four years since the beginning of the Iraq war and the Darfur genocide - with no end in sight.
Friday, January 5, 2007 THE COMIC GENIUS OF BUSH & ALLEN:
An interlocutor moderates a conversation of wit and wisdom between the world's second greatest comedy duo, George W. and Woody (following Burns & Allen - the other George, and Gracie, that is)
Friday, December 29, 2006 The Hanging of Saddam Hussein (6 comments)
As we lick our chops, collectively salivating as Hussein is led to the gallows, American bloodlust ranks up there with a diminishing number of countries in Asia and Africa that impose capital punishment, yet we are unremarkably unparalleled in the Developed, Western, Industrialized world.
Sunday, December 17, 2006 The Decline of Darfur
As the situation deteriorates, the United Nations Human Rights Council has agreed to dispatch a high-level delegation to Darfur on a fact-finding mission to further assess the condition. And just what might this latest "fact-finding" mission hope to unearth? More dead bodies, perhaps?
Thursday, November 30, 2006 ALS and Stem Cell Research
A personal story of terminal illness, and the possibility of hope.
Saturday, November 25, 2006 Tit for Tat (2 comments)
News and cleavage, news and cleavage...go together like a horse and carriage! When did cleavage become the hottest accessory on TV news?
Sunday, November 19, 2006 Where The Children No Longer Dance
Did the children of Darfur stop dancing when they lost hope? Or did they lose hope when they could no longer dance?
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 An Open Letter to Barack Obama: (8 comments)
All men may be created equal, but not all men have equal rights.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 Hope in a Sea of Gray
Color emerges from a Cape Town shanty.
Monday, September 18, 2006 WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR PEOPLE TO CARE?
Rare 100-Foot Tsunami Hits Land-locked Sudan - Inland Wave Swallows Hundreds of Thousands in Darfur, Washes Away Entire Villages - Millions Displaced. It appears as though the word genocide doesn't hold as much water as it once did.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006 International Day of Peace
Many events took place in September of 2001, one of which brought a collective voice of promise in a world otherwise overwhelmed with tragedy.
Thursday, August 24, 2006 Headlines You Won't See on CNN The Most Trusted Name In News!
(or introduced and read in over-the-top loud voice, at times, shouting in order to get the point across sound bytes, perfected in the New School of "Shout the News! for Startled Attention Teleprompter Reading.")
Saturday, August 5, 2006 FORGOTTEN, AGAIN: DARFUR CRISIS RAGES ON (1 comments)
Escalating violence and food shortages exacerbate an already nightmarish existence in Darur
