Raphael and Gardo are close pals who live and work together on the Behala landfill site. They spend each day desperately trying to eke out a living looking for trash that they can sell for money. In their daily fight for survival, it pays to have a partner, someone who can watch their back as well as help them find choice items of trash to sell.

Gardo is very much the senior partner in this friendship and work relationship. Although the same age as Raphael, he's considerably more mature, less naïve than his friend. This means that he's able to look out for Raphael in what is a very dangerous, unforgiving environment.

As they're such good friends and are able to trust each other, Raphael and Gardo work quickly, certainly much quicker than some of the other kids and old people who just poke about in the trash with their sticks and who seem to think that every single item of trash needs to be turned over.

Gardo and Raphael know better. Raphael's able to spot paper and plastic among the other trash and pull it out quickly, saving him and his buddy an awful lot of time while others are still poking about with their sticks.