On the outskirts of Nairobi a new world is being born. In the neighborhood of Kahawa Sukari (kiswahili for ‘coffee and sugar’, not far from Karen Blixen’s plantation immortalized in ‘Out of Africa’), on the dividing line between a rich gated community and the poor one-room shacks next door, we meet the ‘other Africa’. The Africa we know is full of misery, corruption, and fear. The other Africa is a land of solidarity, simple beauty, and real hope. ‘Crescendo’ is a doorway into this world. We meet teachers and students, community leaders, doctors and missionaries, disabled children and AIDS victims—but not in order to denounce their situation, but rather to learn from them what it means to make the world a better place.