[mod_python] Not finding handler on public_html

Hi everybody

I installed mod_python on apache 1.3.23-1 and everything went OK.
Reading the documentation I tried to test my server writing some simple 
tests. I created a directory in /var/www called test and I haved copeid 
to her the file mptest.py. I changed the configuration of apache 
introducing new lines to that directory, like in the example in 3.2, 
from the documentation.
Everything went OK.

Then I tried to do the same thing but in my home directory, in 
public_html. Here it gave some errors:

Mod_python error: "PythonHandler mptest"

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/usr/lib/python2.1/site-packages/mod_python/apache.py", line 181, in Dispatch
    module = import_module(module_name, _req)

  File "/usr/lib/python2.1/site-packages/mod_python/apache.py", line 335, in import_module
    f, p, d = imp.find_module(parts[i], path)

ImportError: No module named mptest

What could be the problem that I'm having ?

Thanks in advance.

Luis Sousa