The car is packed tight with supplies: an assessment kit, medical kits, enough water and food for six days, plus emergency phone numbers and a satellite phone. Pete goes through the security briefing again and explains we're likely to come up against "coupeurs de routes" - bandits. They're a huge problem here. They're armed, well-organised gangs from Central African Republic (CAR) and Chad, they act with impunity, holding up cars and trucks, kidnapping and extorting money from organisations and families.

Before we set off, the team goes over the objectives of our health assessment mission. Maxence, our logistics co-ordinator, and Pete wish us well. To increase security, we will travel in convoy with Mercy Corps, an American NGO that has just started a project in Nana Mambere. Travelling out through Bangui we stop at the security check point. The area is surrounded by a sprawling market place where we stock up on bread. I discover later that bread-making stops at the edge of Bangui. Getting out of the car, I attract the normal fuss associated with a potential foreign customer. Having skipped my morning coffee, I feel ill-equipped to deal with the attention and make a hasty retreat to the car.

As soon as we're outside Bangui, the level of poverty drops to an all-new low. I quickly realise that while Bangui appeared basic, the rest of CAR has even less. The journey takes us through a series of almost identical villages made up of 20 or so mud brick huts bordering the road. Children play as women cook around fires and men chat under trees.

Except for the football shirts worn by most of the men and boys and the occasional tin roof, there is nothing to suggest we are in the 21st century. Children eagerly wave at us as we drive past. But as the car slows, you can see the evidence of malnutrition - the bloated stomachs and legs caused by pitting oedema, swelling from a severe form of protein-energy malnutrition.

About four hours into our journey, we stop to stretch our legs and grab a coke. We are at the main travellers' rest between Bouar and Bangui, and a number of huge trucks are parked as we pull in. It amazes me that here, in one of the poorest countries in the world, where you struggle to buy a bag of cement, you still find Coca Cola.

Bruno points out the total lack of business or enterprise around. We are on the busiest road in CAR - the main link with Cameroon, where the majority of its goods are imported. And yet there is nothing available at this major route stop. No place for the drivers to get food, no place to drink, just a few makeshift stalls and the inevitable Coca Cola ice box.

The journey then becomes an obstacle course of potholes and small canyons as the road deteriorates to a dirt track. It saddens me that this is the main trading route for a country of 4 million, and that despite the support CAR has received in the last few years the road remains in this condition.

We arrive at Bouar, the capital of Nana Mambere, the third biggest city in CAR. About 45,000 people live here with no electricity and no running water. At first glance Bouar is just a bigger version of the roadside villages we passed earlier.

We visit some communities and their health centres to gauge the health conditions of the area. We are also introduced to the local dignitaries - the army, the gendarmeries and local community leaders. We explain who we are, what we are here to do and listen to their thoughts on the problems and the causes of the health conditions in the area.

The head of the region is summoned to meet with us. He turns up on his motorbike and is pleased to hear our plans, explaining how his area needs a lot of help after being hit badly by a meningitis epidemic in February 2008 and a typhoid epidemic in November 2007. He explains that the lack of water has caused huge problems and with poor health facilities lacking supplies, people in his community simply have to go without.

In the afternoon of the first day, we turn our attention to the military forces and go to meet the leader of the Central African Army, who is stationed at the old French military base, a huge number of deserted, ramshackle buildings which used to house 2,000 troops. As I walk around, the place feels like a ghost town, as if the French military just upped and left.

The Captain of the armed forces warns of insecurity outside the main towns. He tells us that the bandits are rampant throughout the rural areas where his troops don't patrol. He wishes us luck and assures us we will not receive any trouble from his troops.

As we leave, we see a group of ex-rebels stationed at the base, easily identifiable by their dark green hats. Whilst their leaders have been integrated into the government, nobody seems to know what to do with them, and for now they're being "looked after" by the troops. Five hundred men just sleeping rough in an army base, not doing anything and with little planned for them now the conflict is over.

We stay the night at the local Catholic Mission where the nuns prove to be a great source of information. They give us more details about the insecurity and tell us which roads to avoid. The Mission has electricity and Internet for three hours every evening, so after a debrief with Bruno and Jean Marie, it feels good to switch off and catch up with friends over email.

Read Justin's first blog from CAR - My first day in CAR

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