Python module import failed error

[matt.doolittle33 at gmail.com]

> 
> What do you mean by that path? That doesn't look like an Ubuntu/Linux
> 
> path name. Pull up a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T should do that for you,
> 
> though I haven't used an Ubuntu since 10.10) and see if you can 'ls'
> 
> the path - once you have the real path name (it might start with
> 
> /home/your_user_name/ for instance), go back to the commands you found
> 
> on the web and try them - they'll probably work, then.
> 
thats the file path.  the directory "bin" in my home directory.  in bash it obviously looks like this  "~/bin" using the file system folder the path is home/Home/bin.  i have tried commands like, export PYTHONPATH=${PYTHONPATH}:/users/matt/bin or home/matt/bin or Home/home/bin and nothing has worked.
from what ive found on the web the Python import process is notoriously underspecified, notwithstanding i was under the impression that PYTHONPATH is a global variable that i can add directories to at anytime to tell Python where to look, without having to add some sort of code to every program.  is this impression incorrect?  is there some code i need to add to the Python program call the modules in the "bin" dir?