DIARY HAITI/ 13. Only you Mary can sustain us in this trial

Every day here, the unexpected is the rule. After a few quiet days, during which we planned the day and night shifts, everything changed.

In the words of the prayer that the Haitian Bishops' Conference wrote at the time of re-consecration to Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help, Patroness of Haiti, asking for healing and deliverance from cholera: "You have made us for life ... we have passed through the trial of several cyclones and floods that have destroyed our country. After the suffering of the earthquake of January 12, today it is the cholera that has struck us. Without your help we will not be able to withstand this test."

Besides the cholera, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the day that the results of the polls were announced, the situation of the country worsened due to serious unrest by supporters of the losing candidate. The roads are blocked by barricades of burning tires and rubbish bins. We were advised not to move for safety reasons, besides the fact that we could not get through.

We needed to see how we could continue the presence of doctors and assistance at the clinic of Sister Marcella, for which AVSI provides pediatricians and medical supplies.

Omero and I, living above Petion Ville, the center of the demonstrations, were blocked at home with others from AVSI for two days, while Gianfranco, Fosca and Elisa, from the Sacco Hospital in Milan, who live near Sister Marcella on another directive, bravely set off on a motorbike of friends of Marcella, passing through the barriers and managing to arrive at the hospital where they have guaranteed this presence, but without being able to leave for two consecutive days.