" Every morning after his rigorous exercise Paco would stand facing the sea and gazing at the far distant. Beyond the horizon he imagines seeing a glimpse of a shoreline, that perhaps forms the outline boundary of a magical place called "Babylon", and perhaps even the the mythical place "Eldorado", that had made many dreams possible. " 

Six o'clock in the morning, Serekunda West, Paco jumped from bed, stretched his arms and legs, lay on the floor and did a quick push ups to warm his body. He then washed his face and hurriedly dives under the bed and took his running shoes, a pair of warrior sneakers made by converse. Dawn on his favorite T-shirt, the words "Who Dares Win" boldly written at the back and start running the 6 miles distant towards the sea.  

Once at the beach, Paco would skip 200 times; run a couple 40 yards dash, 200 pushups in different variation, and squat 3 sets of 12 each. This is the routine that has become Paco's regiment for the last three months. This rigorous and intensive training was employed a month ago, when Paco met this stranger. A tourist who saw him exercise observed his routine and thought Paco's technique and style rather mediocre. This man, an Ex-British soldier gave Paco some new techniques in how best to condition his body, even gave him a T-shirt as gift. Since then his body's response to this new technique has been immediate and Paco now more confident than before has embarked on this training with an added zeal.  

His chess, now more defined, his waist a little bit trimmer, and his arms and biceps more muscular. Of late he has started walking on his toes with his chess slightly in an upward position. His friends used to joke that Paco's new walking style "inhaling" as they dubbed it is more an act of intimidation than anything else. Of late many of his neighborhood peers (A neighborhood the boys dubbed "South") have started leaving for distant places. At first, it was just a few, and then it seems every month someone is leaving. Eventually it reached a point such even the astute Paco could not keep tab on the exodus. 

Paco knows that he is not stupid, even though he drop out of high school, but he is certain that he is smarter than many people realized. Even though he does not have the papers to prove it, but who cares about certificates these days anyway he muttered to himself when all that matters is success. They seem to prove nothing especially in this age of laissez-faire Gambian liberalism. Who knows! He wonders maybe the educational system he went through is somehow flawed in some aspects, but he could not point to any specific area. 

Ever since leaving school, he has embarked on some serious reading. He had read Neocolonialism- the last stage of capitalism by Kwame Nkrumah, "Das Kapital" by Karl Max, even memorize the "Communist Manifesto" He has been hanging more often with his favorite uncle Pa. A man who worked for a Greek shipping company in the early 70's sailed throughout out Europe, Asia, and North America. Uncle Pa even sailed into the Soviet Union on more than one occasion. In his narrations Paco listened to Uncle Pa's adventures. Places like Antwerp, Cologne, Helsinki, Prague, Leningrad, Copenhagen, Bremen, and London. and Tokyo seems very alluring. He imagined how beautiful these places are and in contrasted to his own neighborhood. How different these major cities are compared to his neighborhood he grew up, the neighborhood " South" he love so dearly much and yet can't help wanting, the urge, the incremental feeling that maybe his luck lay outside the confines of this neighborhood, perhaps even outside the boundary of his birth place. This Europe, this beautiful land endowed with vast opportunities is a place Paco needs to be. This land of a thousand lights is no doubt the new "Babylon".  

Few days ago, Paco has gone to the immigration dept in Banjul to check on the progress of his passport application, and at Denton Street he ran into an old friend Tam, (a classmate at Mohammedan Primary school back in the day), just from Denmark, driving a new 190 c-class Mercedes Benz. He has spent the whole day hanging with him. They even stopped by at Albion Place to get a copy of DJ Cora's latest reggae selection from Germany before proceeding to Tobacco Road. He has observed how Tam now more confident, even sound enlightened in his description of many things about the world. How in his conversations his friend seems to demonstrate a new degree of intelligence.  

Few months ago, his best friend Dave has just entered Switzerland, and has sent him a picture of him leaning back in the front of a nice car with bright lights all over the place. In fact a Paco thought that his friend really looks good or rather "Fresh" (to use the parlance of the day) after just a few months of leaving home. He has gazed into this picture perhaps a thousand times, and each time he saw something new, something different. Like a consummate artist inspecting a canvas, Paco has methodically looked at every details of this picture and every minute detail speaks volume to him about the place, this "magical" he thought to himself is a certainly a place he ought to be. 

His had received money from Dave and this enabled him to secure most of his travel documents a bachelor's certificate, and a certificate of character. All that is left is his passport which he hoped to get anytime soon. The last two years he has been a keen participant of the neighborhood's "Naweetan" team. But this year, he has to be excused for Paco is getting ready for the ultimate, and need both mind and body for his quantum leap into the "Babylon".  

So every morning after his rigorous exercise Paco would stand facing the sea and gazing at the far distant. Beyond the horizon he imagines seeing a glimpse of a shoreline, that perhaps forms the outline boundary of a magical place called "Babylon", and perhaps even the mythical place “Eldorado", that had many dreams possible.