Why is mod_python running entire django stack from beginning with each request?

My understanding is that mod_python loads the python process into apache, avoiding the overhead of doing that on each call. My expectation was that this would mean that my django stack would also only be loaded once.

What I am observing, however, is that every request is running the entire django stack from the beginning, as though it were the first request. The settings are re-imported. Middleware __init__'s, which are supposed to be run once at django startup, are run each time. And so forth. It seems to be essentially like I would expect CGI to be.

Is this expected behavior? I have mostly worked with mod_wsgi, which I believe does not work this way, but I have to use mod_python for my current client.

Thanks!