[Libvir] a couple of questions -Newbie

I am really excited to start using this, but I have a couple of questions about how to use it exactly. I want to be able to pull a list of stats out of my Xen machines. I need to get something like network i/o. I just need to know how much in and out traffic that a specific machine is doing. I am pretty new to python and to programming in general. I have looked at the APi and stuff like that, but am a little confused still on how to actually do this. Mainly I just need to know how to connect to certain things. Once I have a basic understanding of what is going on then I can take it from there. Thanks for all the help! Spencer Parker