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MONROVIA, Liberia - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf takes office as Africa's first elected female president Monday, but rebuilding war-devastated Liberia will be no easy task.
In a nation with no electricity and no running water, not even the toilets are working in the Executive Mansion, where water is still carried in buckets. Across the country, a stunning 80 percent of the work force is jobless.
''We have so many problems. Too many to count,'' said Serena Marley, a 33-year-old mother of three who ekes out a living as a market seller.
To rebuild Liberia and secure desperately needed foreign aid, Sirleaf must win over international donors by proving the nation is in good hands - well-governed, free of corruption and violence.
Doug Coffman, a U.N. spokesman in Liberia, said the country needs substantial and continued aid. Rebuilding and retraining the army and police force alone will take tens of millions of dollars, he said.
On-and-off civil wars from 1989 to 2003 left 200,000 people dead and displaced more than half of Liberia's 3 million people. With 15,000 peacekeepers and a solid two years of peace, the threat of renewed war is considered remote, at least for now.
Sirleaf says she will reach out to former rebel leaders and personally invite them to find ways to contribute to Liberia's growth. Most faction leaders supported her political rival, soccer star George Weah, who lost a heated November presidential runoff.
The House and Senate - modeled after their counterparts in the United States, with whom Liberia has a long and close history - include former warlords as legislators.
Sirleaf must ensure the integration of 100,000 ex-combatants. That means keeping money flowing to U.N.-backed programs that have put them in school and given them job training.
Many former fighters are convinced Sirleaf stole the election from Weah, though international observers declared the vote free and fair.
Sirleaf, a 67-year-old Harvard-educated former finance minister, has promised to electrify the city within six months with private investment she says are already lined up.
''She's promised to bring safe drinking water and electricity and she has the international contacts to make that happen,'' 41-year-old former fighter James Cooper said.
Liberia, founded by freed American slaves in 1847, has been wracked by coups and war since 1980. Two of the last four heads of state have been executed, a third fled to Nigeria, and the fourth could face criminal charges for corruption.
The country's economy is minuscule. The national budget is just $80 million, with donors injecting about $300 million annually, mostly through aid projects.