`` ; `` you could call us a mezzanine fund , sure , but we 'll go in earlier if we 're really confident about the risk metrics '' ; `` i figured out why it 's always easier to understand the francophone african ministers than their french counterparts : they always speak slowly and clearly , just the way they were instructed to in grade school '' -and glanced at dozens of faces , many glimpsed partially , crescents glinting through occluding bodies .