MapKit and adding new pins after a MKLocalSearch - xcode

Question

I'm running a MKLocalSearch request and when I find POIs I want to drop a pin based on the coordinates of the POIs I find. NSLog(#"annotations %d",[mapView.annotations count]); returns 0 even with valid coordinates for the POIs
- (void)resultsForButtonTapped:(NSString *)search
{
arrayOfPOIs = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
arrayOfAnnotaions = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
NSLog(#"%#",search);
MKLocalSearchRequest *request = [[MKLocalSearchRequest alloc] init];
MKCoordinateRegion region;
request.naturalLanguageQuery = search;
request.region = region;
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = YES;
localsearch = [[MKLocalSearch alloc] initWithRequest:request];
[localsearch startWithCompletionHandler:^(MKLocalSearchResponse *response, NSError *error) {
[UIApplication sharedApplication].networkActivityIndicatorVisible = NO;
if (error != nil) {
return;
}else{
if ([response.mapItems count] == 0) {
[[[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"No Results",nil)
message:nil
delegate:nil
cancelButtonTitle:NSLocalizedString(#"OK",nil) otherButtonTitles:nil] show];
return;
}
for (MKMapItem *item in response.mapItems)
{
NSString *name = item.name;
NSLog(#"%#",name);
[arrayOfPOIs addObject:name];
}
results = response;
NSLog(#"%d",[arrayOfPOIs count]);
for (int i=0; i<[results.mapItems count]; i++) {
MKMapItem* itemPOI = results.mapItems[i];
NSLog(#"Result: %#",itemPOI.placemark.name);
NSLog(#"Result: %#",itemPOI.placemark.name);
MKPlacemark* annotation= [[MKPlacemark alloc] initWithPlacemark:itemPOI.placemark];
MKPointAnnotation *marker = [MKPointAnnotation new];
marker.coordinate = annotation.coordinate;
[mapView addAnnotation:marker];
NSLog(#"annotations %d",[mapView.annotations count]);
}
[self loadTheDataAgain];
}
}];
// NSLog(#"outside the block, the count is %lu",(unsigned long)[arrayOfPOIs count]);
NSLog(#"stuff %#",arrayOfAnnotaions);
}